Teacher Who Sent Teenaged Boy Love Letters Loses Teaching Licence
By Amy Carmichael
Originally published by the Canadian Press, May 17, 2001
TORONTO (CP) — A teacher who sent a teenaged boy sexually charged e-mail will be stripped of her teaching licence, a hearing was told Thursday afternoon.
"We will revoke the member's certificate immediately," Mark Lefebvre, chair of the Ontario College of Teachers disciplinary panel said of Annie Markson.
Markson, a York region Catholic school supply teacher, was found guilty of professional misconduct on March 1 for a relationship with a 14-year-old student.
The student, who is now 17, told the college's disciplinary committee that he had five clandestine meetings with Markson and exchanged sexually explicit e-mails with her during the summer of 1998.
He said their relationship never went beyond hugs and kisses, which he initiated.
Markson must wait one year before she can apply for reinstatement, the panel said.
Markson is the second woman to have her teaching licence taken away for professional misconduct since the disciplinary committee was created in 1998.
More than 35 men have lost their certificates for professional misconduct.
Markson's lawyer, William Markle, said the decision was unfair.
"(The panel's decision), sets the bar so high that if you make one slip you could get your certificate taken away," he said.
Earlier Thursday, Thomas Forbes, lawyer for the college, told the penalty hearing Markson should be banned from teaching because she failed to show up for her disciplinary hearing and didn't apologize for her actions.
"There's been no direct apology, no expression of interest, of insight, no recognition," said Forbes.
But Markle said his client deeply regretted her actions. He urged the panel not to ban her from teaching because she's suffered enough and isn't likely to reoffend.
"She's learned tremendous lessons, professionally, personally and emotionally," he said.
"God knows she'll keep her guard up and never let anything like this happen again."
He added that Markson didn't attend the hearing because he'd told her not to subject herself to the glare of the media.
The college was seeking too severe a penalty, Markle said, given that it wasn't proven she abused the boy sexually, physically or emotionally.
A psychologist told the college on Wednesday that Markson has suffered chronic insomnia, guilt and depression.
But Forbes said her lawyer did not provide any evidence of what Markson has been doing since the relationship ended, or what her record has been with children since the incident.
Forbes suggested that she could have gone to counselling to address her "boundary issues" and have the doctor report back on her progress, but she did not.
He had asked that the college revoke her licence and order her to pay $38,000 in costs. This is the first time the college has tried to recover costs from an accused teacher.
But the panel did not hand down any fines when rendering its decision Thursday afternoon.
