Article content
A one-time Clarke Road secondary school teacher faces an accusation of professional misconduct over dozens of alleged instances of inappropriate comments, touching or sexual gestures toward female colleagues.
Article content
Former Thames Valley District school board teacher Donald Yeoman will have a hearing on May 18 for allegedly engaging in conduct that would be regarded “as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional,” according to the profession’s regulatory body, the Ontario College of Teachers.
The allegations include interactions with a total of six people, all listed as Yeoman’s female colleagues at Clarke Road, according to the college. They include:
- From 2015-16, Yeoman is alleged to have asked probing questions, shared details of his personal sexual relationship and held a dodgeball to the ear of a colleague and asked a sexual question while letting the air out, according to the Ontario College of Teachers.
- He allegedly asked a colleague to sit on his lap and touched parts of her body inappropriately, according to the college.
- The college alleges that in 2017 he commented on a colleague’s breasts, and asked her to do jumping jacks.
- Between 2016 and 2018 Yeoman is alleged to have made a clicking sound at a person as she walked down the hall, winked and said: “Hey trouble.”
- On more than one occasion, he allegedly blocked a doorway so a woman couldn’t exit, and “gestured that he would going to pick up” the person, according to the college. He also whistled and made a clicking sound at another colleague, the hearing notice states.
- Other instances include allegedly pulling a chair out from a person as they were about sit down and it’s alleged that he catcalled and “checked out” a person as she walked in a hall, according to the college.
- He allegedly also made inappropriate comments about another colleague’s body parts and asked another if she wanted to be spanked, according to the college.
Article content
In September 2019, Yeoman pleaded guilty in criminal court to simple assault in relation to actions against one of his colleagues, which included covering their eyes with a hoodie and touching them sexually, the hearing notice states. On December 11, 2019 he was given an absolute discharge, which means no punishment was imposed by the courts.
Yeoman’s employment with the school board was terminated in 2018, according to the hearing notice. Per Ontario’s teacher registry, he is still listed as a teacher in “good standing.” The registry indicates Yeoman graduated from teachers college at Western University in 2011.
Yeoman and his lawyer Naomi Greckol-Herlich declined to comment.
https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/london-colleagues-accuse-teacher-of-sex-charged-comments-gestures
