60+ "Catholic" teacher talked sex, put legs behind her head, in class

Leonara Brown, a former Toronto Catholic District School Board religion teacher was found guilty of professional misconduct yesterday, after students told the Discipline Committee of the Ontario College of Teachers that she went on frequent sexually-laced tirades before demonstrating her flexibility in front of the class by putting her legs behind her head.

Ms Brown did not appear in front of the tribunal, but denied the allegations contained in the notice of hearing, which you can read in full by clicking here.

At yesterday's hearing, former students testified that Ms Brown liked to regale her "religion" classes with tales of her sex life and her parents' sex life, the point of which was to advise pupils as to what they should do in their own. Said one student, "I felt like she wasn't qualified to be a teacher. That's not something you're supposed to say to a student in a religion class."

One student testified that shortly after a Grade 10 class began on 25 February 2015, Ms Brown began to speak about her personal life. She told impressionable teens that the reason her mother had 20 children was because she was "horny". She recalled asking her mother once why she was so black. "I told her she should have fucked a white sailor," she said.

The student said Ms Brown swore throughout the class and made inappropriate comments. After telling students personal stories about women she said were "sluts", she advised the kids "If a slutty girl or a horny girl wants to have sex with you, you should fuck her well and leave her in a wheelchair for two days."

Six days earlier, the tribunal heard, Ms Brown was teaching a Grade 9 religion class, and caught a male student's attention when he heard her say, "He can kiss my black ass without touching it." In this "lesson" too, she brought up her personal life, telling the class that when she was younger, a student at her school tried to grab her buttocks and she stuck a pencil in his arm. She went on to boast of how flexible she was for a sexagenarian. [Look it up. Ed.] She demonstrated by lying on the floor and attempting to put her legs behind her head, an act which a bemused student captured in a video which was viewed by the tribunal. "It made me feel weird," a student testified. "It was unusual in a religion class but overall it was pretty funny."

"Unusual in a religion class..." Yes. Can I get an "AMEN" for that? The real problem, IMHO, is that in Kathleen Wynne's Ontario, sex education -- not just straight sex but just about every perversion imaginable -- must be taught in all publicly funded schools, including so-called "Catholic" schools. When you take the government's (read "taxpayers'") dime, you have to dance to their tune. The remarkable thing is that there are any "religion" classes at all!

Readers may be surprised to know that, in spite of the blatant misconduct, the Discipline Committee did not revoke Leonara Brown's teaching licence. The tribunal heard that Ms Brown retired after taking a leave of absence from the (unnamed) school shortly after the allegations were made in 2015, and never returned. If Ms Brown wants to teach again, she will have to complete a course on "professional boundaries with students". Seriously. Meanwhile, the Discipline Committee ordered her to appear in person to have her wrists slapped.

Footnote: This is not the first time Ms Brown has been in the news. At the beginning of 2014 she was involved in a bizarre case of identity theft, in which her former "friend" was convicted of using Ms Brown's ID to obtain a mortgage on a posh home in Niagara-on-the-Lake ON. See "Victim outraged at sentence for identity thief", Toronto Sun, 27/1/14. It seems poor Ms Brown is always a victim. Walt can't understand why.