Revised - The Yukon government is taking it on the chin again over its handling of the Hidden Valley Elementary School sex-abuse scandal.

On Thursday, the Office of the Yukon Ombudsman issued the first of two reports into a complaint of unfairness against the Department of Education from a parent of a student at the school.

The Ombudsman’s investigation found that the government’s failure to communicate with parents at the school was “unfair, depriving parents of the opportunity to take timely action to help their children.”

In a news release, Jason Pedlar stated, “Later this year, we will issue a second report into this complaint. This additional step is due to the multiple investigations into this matter.

“Because of the broad mandate of the Rogers Report commissioned by the Yukon government, there was overlap with issues that we investigate.”

That was a reference to an independent report compiled by lawyer Amanda Rogers.

“Our next report will assess whether the Safer Schools Action Plan, the government’s response to the Rogers Report, adequately addresses issues of unfairness,” Pedlar said.

“This is an excellent opportunity to see past the Rogers Report and the actions taken. Any recommendations we may have will be included in our second report.”

The complaint was made to the ombudsman in October 2021 by a parent of a student at HVES.

According to the report, the parent felt it was unfair that it took 19 months for the department to inform them, and other parents, about allegations of the sexualized abuse of a student by an educational assistant at the school.

The report by Pedlar is fairly scathing.

In the document, he wrote, “The department did not share information about the allegations until it was made public in July 2021 by a CBC News story about a related lawsuit.

“By that time, the matter had proceeded through the court system, resulting in a guilty plea to a criminal charge of sexual interference.”

He says his investigation looked into three issues:

1) why the department took 19 months to inform school parents about the allegations;

2) why the department did an about-face in August 2021 and began sharing information about the allegations;

3) whether the department was legally obligated to share information about the allegations with the parents or whether it was legally prohibited from doing so.

In the report, Pedlar states, “On the first issue, our investigation found that the delay in informing school parents was unfair in several ways.

“The department did not follow any structured policy or process for communicating with parents, despite having such policies in place.

“We also found that those most directly affected by this matter, the parents and students, did not receive the responsive people-centred service that underpins fairness.

“As well, the decision not to communicate with parents did not focus on the needs of those it served, the children.”

His criticism grew more pointed at that point.

“On the second issue, the investigation found that the department only began sharing information about the allegations because of the CBC News story, when it found itself unexpectedly having to react.

“Without this media story, it is likely that the department would have maintained its silence, perpetuating the unfairness.

“On the third issue, the investigation found that the department likely did meet its legal obligations regarding this matter under two laws, although it failed to follow department policies that should have guided decision-making about communication to parents.

“It also found that the Yukon’s privacy laws did not prevent the department from sharing information about the allegations. Rather, it obligated the department to do so.”

Cabinet ministers were not made aware of the situation until it was reported in the media, the report notes.

Education Minister Jeanie McLean issued a statement via the government communications network about an hour after the report was released.

“The Government of Yukon has reviewed the Yukon Ombudsman’s first report on its investigation into the 2019 Hidden Valley Elementary School incident,”the statement reads.

“We find this report to be aligned with the assessment provided by Amanda Rogers in her Independent Review Report.”

McLean’s statement added, “We accept all of the Ombudsman’s report recommendations in principle, and are committed to continuing to work towards system-wide corrective action.

“Mistakes were made in response to the 2019 Hidden Valley incident. The Government of Yukon has apologized – and will continue to apologize – to parents and students at Hidden Valley Elementary School, both for the incident and how it was handled.

“We acknowledge that more should have been done to inform parents and to support students and their families following the incident.”

McLean added in the statement that “we are learning from our mistakes.

“We are implementing real changes to minimize the likelihood that incidents like these take place in the future. We have taken significant actions to increase student safety by developing and implementing the Safer Schools Action Plan.

“We will continue to address issues identified in this and other reports so that we can improve the safety and well-being of students at school, as well as the government’s ability to respond effectively to critical or serious incidents that take place in an educational setting.”

In 2020, former executive assistant William Auclair-Bellemare, 35, had pleaded guilty to sexual interference involving a child at the school and had later served a jail sentence.

See related coverage.