The following originally appeared on CBC.
Ryan Painter, School District 61 Board of Education chair, released an open letter on Feb. 24 detailing the processes that led to the recent suspension and censure of two trustees.
The decision to suspend the trustees, Diane McNally and Rob Paynter, came after a third-party investigation into allegations of harassment and bullying.
During the suspension, Paynter and McNally will not be allowed to attend meetings in their role as trustees, or have access to confidential board information. The two trustees maintain the right to seek a judicial review of this decision.
"The board did not undertake disciplinary measures against trustees McNally and Paynter lightly," the letter reads.
"The suspensions follow years of attempts to work with all trustees to ensure that the duties of the board are exercised in a respectful and dignified manner, consistent with our values and obligations under the Workers Compensation Act, and the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act."
The letter goes on to state that the Board of Education does not "publicly humiliate or embarrass" employees, and that individual trustees have an obligation not to "undermine the board or expose it to liability" by making unapproved statements about individual staff members that do not reflect a majority opinion of the board.
Letter cites 2019 investigation
The investigation arose after staff filed two formal complaints concerning incidents that occurred in the summer of 2021, when Painter said the two trustees allegedly made "disparaging comments" about staff in public. This investigation found the allegations to be substantiated.
Paynter and McNally declined to comment on this story.
A previous investigation in the spring of 2019 was carried out following previous complaints regarding unspecified trustees, the open letter says.
Independent legal counsel who carried out the 2019 investigation found that the unnamed trustees "engaged in a pattern of conduct, including persistent and irrelevant questioning, repeated requests for information that were not forwarded through proper channels, blaming staff for 'mistakes' that demonstrated a lack of respect for staff, and a failure to support or respect staff."
Following the 2019 investigation, the board issued a public apology to the staff who they say were publicly criticized by trustees on social media and in other public forums.
Painter wrote that a copy of the 2019 investigative report was released to the media by McNally, and the board voted to censure and suspend her from in-camera meetings for a year.
Public letter issued for transparency, says chair
The 2021 investigation, Painter said, followed allegedly disparaging comments and social media posts in May and June made by McNally and Paynter regarding the superintendent, who isn't named in the letter, and secretary-treasurer Kim Morris.
The superintendent left her position partly as a result of these comments, reads the letter, which goes on to say a public apology to her was read into the public record.
Marcia McNeil, the third-party investigator, stated in her report that the criticism posted online about Morris was not expressed to her privately beforehand.
The report also recommended revising the trustee code of conduct and bylaws around social media use.
The letter says the majority of the comments took place on Twitter, but does not specify their nature or language.
In making this letter public, Painter said the board's intention was to make their decision-making process more transparent.
'We want to balance the ability to say something in public'
But Royal Roads University associate professor Jaigris Hodson says more information is needed for the public to get the full story.
"Without seeing the tweets, we can't know if this is an organization wielding power in a bad way against its members just because they didn't like what they were saying or whether the members were indeed being abusive online," she said.
Social media policies can be important for setting the line for officials engaging in professional discourse online, Hodson says.
But, she adds, "we want to balance the ability to say something in public – to criticize or to make transparent the inner workings of a body like the school board – but also not get into harassment and abuse."
When CBC Victoria asked SD61 for their policy on trustees' social media use, they failed to provide one by deadline.