Winnipeg School Division places Kelvin teacher on unpaid leave

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This article was published 21/01/2015 (3929 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kelvin High School teacher Brad Badiuk is now on unpaid leave in an ongoing investigation into Facebook postings Badiuk made about indigenous people.

He had been on paid leave since the Facebook postings became public Dec. 8.

Emphasizing again that Winnipeg School Division has not publicly identified the teacher or the teacher’s school, WSD school board chairman Mark Wasyliw said Wednesday that, “The internal investigation progressed to the point where a decision was made that the staff member would no longer be on paid leave. No further or final decisions have been made.”

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak filed suit against Badiuk Jan. 9 for the posted comments. Badiuk has not yet filed a statement of defence.

Badiuk has been a teacher at Kelvin since at least the late 1990s.

WSD placed him on paid leave while the human resources department investigated.

Wasyliw had earlier outlined a process in which the human resources staff would eventually make a recommendation for discipline of the teacher to chief superintendent Pauline Clarke, who could impose discipline up to and including firing the teacher. The teacher would have the right to appeal to the board of trustees, as well as filing a grievance with the Manitoba Labour Board under his union’s collective bargaining agreement.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society would not comment Wednesday on the change from paid to unpaid leave.

The teachers’ society has not said whether it would represent Badiuk in the lawsuit — he made the comments from home on his own time, and Nepinak’s lawsuit describes him only as a resident of Winnipeg.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca