02/05/2026
BREAKING: Under provincial takeover, the Toronto District School Board is creating chaos across our schools and in our communities. We're rallying outside the TDSB at 5050 Yonge Street TODAY at 4:30 pm in solidarity with these beloved Bowmore teachers & for the schools our students deserve
New article this morning in the Toronto Star: "Firings, suspensions and angry parents: Inside the ongoing turmoil at Bowmore public school" - Isabel Teotonio
What began as a scheduling dispute at an east-end school has snowballed into the unprecedented firing of two teachers and a vice-principal, and another eight teachers suspended without pay — moves that have added to months of turmoil for parents and students.
Frustrated families say the disciplinary action has exacerbated the ongoing crisis at Bowmore Road Junior and Senior Public School, which includes unrelated — and still unresolved — student safety concerns.
The Toronto District School Board “has significantly disrupted the learning of hundreds of students at this school, created a lot of chaos and anxiety for these children, their parents, and all of the staff at the school and contributed to a growing climate of fear amongst staff — not just at this school, but across the TDSB,” said Helen Victoros, president of Elementary Teachers of Toronto.
Acknowledging the growing controversy, the board wrote to parents Monday, saying it has investigated or is investigating all concerns, will bring in an audit team to review safety and procedures, add security cameras and staff, and appoint a new principal and superintendent as it works to rebuild trust at Bowmore.
“I recognize that periods of transition can bring uncertainty, and I want to assure families that our focus remains on providing stable leadership, consistent support, and a positive learning environment for all students,” wrote Stacey Zucker, interim director of education.
Bowmore changes learning model
In mid-September, the school shifted its scheduling model for intermediate students, who had already settled into their routines. It moved away from a rotary-like system — where students had a few teachers providing instruction in different subject areas — to core, where one teacher handles most lessons with their homeroom class.
Parents, supportive of the team-teaching model which had successfully been in place for years, began protesting. Teachers were unhappy given that the model allowed them to focus on areas where they have particular strengths, and gives the Grade 7 and 8 students a taste of what to expect with the high-school rotary system.
While the change was mentioned briefly at a May school council meeting, the few parents in attendance pushed back and said they believed the principal had walked it back.
But school sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly, told the Star teachers were expected to implement the core model at the start of the school year. When that didn’t happen, for reasons that aren’t clear, the principal sent a letter to families on Sept. 12 explaining there would be no more co-teaching.
As the issue heated up, one of the Grade 7 teachers — who would later be fired — expressed frustration about the strain of balancing teaching responsibilities and extracurriculars, saying the workload under the new model was unsustainable and teachers were stretched thin, according to the minutes of a November school council meeting.
Parents raise safety concerns
In the meantime, parents had for months been raising safety concerns they felt administrators were not properly addressing, including reports of student bullying, intimidation, racial taunting and retaliation at the school, with little to no consequences for the kids involved.
In mid-January, parents spoke out about escalating incidents of violence — including students vandalizing two classrooms — calling on leaders to take action. According to meeting minutes, the parent of a Black child, who had been called the N-word, said her emails to the superintendent had gone unanswered, and called on the board to deploy resources to address racism, homophobia, anti-Islamic sentiment, physical violence and verbal abuse.
A teacher with 35 years at the school said it had hit a “crisis point,” and she was grappling with “emotional fatigue.”
Days later, the two long-time and well-liked Grade 7 teachers were fired, the principal was re-assigned and the vice-principal let go, causing an uproar. Then, just last week, parents were notified that eight Grade 7 and 8 teachers had been suspended, some off the job until Feb. 10. (All the Grade 7 and 8 teachers affected were caught up in the core rollout.)
The reason for the terminations and disciplinary actions against the teachers has not been made public, but various school sources confirmed they are related to insubordination around the core schedule controversy and had nothing to do with safety issues.
In addition, the teachers’ refusal to continue providing extracurricular activities — they said they needed to prepare lessons for classes they had not expected to teach — could be seen as unsanctioned workplace job action, those school sources said.
Students “were upset ... they were outraged” over the firings and started their own petition to have them reinstated, said Mercedes Lee, mom to twin boys in each of the Grade 7 classes that lost a teacher.
“They love their teachers — these are long-standing members of the community,” she added. ”... It’s just been a wild amount of instability in that school.”
Teachers will be ‘vigorously’ defended
Victoros has never seen so many teachers fired or suspended at a school and says the union is “vigorously defending” them.
“We believe this discipline is absolutely unjust and the union’s going to be taking every step possible to challenge and have it overturned as quickly as possible — as well as getting the two teachers that were fired their jobs back,” she told the Star.
Victoros said other Toronto teachers are “distressed” to hear about what has happened at Bowmore, which has been the talk of educators in the system given growing media coverage. The union is planning a solidarity rally outside the board’s main office Tuesday, and parents are planning a rally outside the school Wednesday.
Jenn Engels, parent council co-chair, said families are feeling “pretty disgusted” over what has unfolded, and believe the board is “retaliating against teachers,” taking them away from students who have already had “so many disruptions this year.”
“I think it’s really about optics. The school administration mishandled the rollout of a major change and, in doing so, didn’t follow the board’s own policies or provincial policies,” she said, adding parents were given misleading, incomplete and inconsistent information.
What parents want
Engels says parents want the teachers reinstated, an independent investigation into whether these disciplinary actions were retaliatory, as well as a return to the rotary model and extra staff.
The board says it has added an extra vice-principal through to June, and will send in literacy and math coaches. Since school began, it has added two safety monitors, two lunchroom supervisors, a special needs assistant, child and youth worker, child and youth counsellor and a student success teacher.
Trustee Michelle Aarts, whose daughter is in Grade 7 at the school, said the board’s letter to parents doesn’t address all their concerns and “there is no mention of the beloved staff who have been suspended or fired and no recognition of the impact of that move by the TDSB on students.”
Engels said the director’s letter is a “great first step,” but noted it is “deliberately vague, and I’d like to see what the follow-through is.”
Bowmore, located off Gerrard Street East between Woodbine and Coxwell avenues, has more than 1,000 students and is among the largest elementary schools in the board.
