The Discipline Committee ordered that the teaching certificate of Bernadette Yolande Byam be revoked for engaging in an inappropriate personal relationship with a student. She also had sexual intercourse with him.
Byam’s misconduct included giving the student her personal phone number, lending him $3,000 to pay off a gambling debt, picking him up in her car and driving around with him, and spending time with him alone at her home.
Byam did not fulfill her professional duties to report the issues the student was experiencing with his mental health and debt to the school administration so that he could get proper support.
During the time in question, Byam was employed by the Toronto District School Board as an educational assistant.
Certified to teach in July 2007, Byam attended the hearing on January 25, February 8 and 9, March 22 and 24, April 18, May 16, 2023, and December 3, 2024, and had legal representation.
The Discipline Committee panel found Byam guilty of professional misconduct and ordered that her Certificate of Qualification and Registration be revoked and that she receive a reprimand. In an earlier decision, the committee found that it had jurisdiction over this matter, despite the fact that these events occurred before Byam became certified as a teacher, based on the public interest mandate of the committee, the severity of the allegations and the fact that the allegations address Byam’s suitability to continue teaching, among other things.
In their decision, the Discipline Committee panel stated, “Teenage students can have strong feelings and can be easily misled and confused by the kind of power imbalance created when they rely too heavily on an educator. This confusion can lead to the student failing to learn how to have healthy relationships in adulthood. The role of an educator is not to be a friend or emotional support person to a student. Instead, an educator is supposed to be a positive role model to students, to maintain a healthy professional distance, and to teach and inspire them so that they are successful in their future.”
