Lawrence Park teacher files complaint with human rights tribunal

A Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute teacher has launched a complaint with Ontario Human Rights Commission against the school and the Toronto District School Board.

Nicholas Giannias, who has been teaching English and history at the Chatsworth Drive school since 2006, has a litany of complaints, including poor classroom conditions and a lack of funding and classroom resources. He also alleges he witnessed the assault of a student by another teacher, and accuses the board of “sweeping it under the rug.”

Giannias told the Town Crier by email on March 10 the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was the reaction following his reporting of the alleged assault.

“I was given the stink eye by the colleague’s buddies in the department he worked at,” Giannias said. “[I] was branded a snitch.”

He says the board told him it was a misunderstanding or an accident.

TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said neither the board nor the school would comment, because “this is a personnel matter.”

Giannias claims he’s been rebuffed when asking for funding for textbooks, including for a history class where he says the school has none. He also claims the hygienic conditions of the classroom caused problems for his students who had asthma.

“An affluent neighbourhood has a school that looks like it should belong to the third world,” he said.

He filed the complaints with the human rights tribunal in December.