Alberta’s government says it’s reviewing the case of a boy who was hit by machine belt as part of school discipline known as the “strap.”
Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides says the review will help determine whether further action is required.
“The safety and well-being of students is my top priority,” he said in an email Wednesday.
Fort Vermilion RCMP announced this week that a woman who was a supervisor at a private religious school in a northwestern Alberta community has been charged with assault with a weapon, after a parent reported on May 20 that their son had bruising from being disciplined at school.
The RCMP said the child was left with red marks on his thigh.
Police then searched a school in mid-June and found a machine belt, similar to a timing belt on a motor or another machine, rather than a pant-worn belt.
The practice of physically disciplining students with the “strap” was being used at three private religious schools in the La Crete area: the Blumenort Mennonite School, Wilson Prairie Mennonite School and Tompkins Mennonite School, the investigation revealed.
The student was from one of the three schools but RCMP not specify which to maintain privacy for the victim.
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Police said parents had been made aware of the practice in a collective constitution they signed.
RCMP said the educators at the schools are not accredited teachers but are considered adult supervisors.
Alberta’s Education Act indicates that registered independent schools are funded by the province, and are not required to use certificated teachers or to teach the Alberta programs of study.
The schools are required to provide copies of its rules for discipline to its students and their parents. The rules must “incorporate the principles of fundamental justice,” the act states.
The education minister has the authority to investigate registered independent schools, and shut them down if the school doesn’t comply with the province’s regulations.
On Wednesday, RCMP added no one else has come forward with assault allegations, but the school community has been informed what constitutes a Criminal Code violation.
“Should more victims come forward, we will open another investigation,” Cpl. Mathew Howell said.
Located about 650 km northwest of Edmonton, La Crete is a unique bilingual hamlet made up heavily of people from the Mennonite community whose ancestors relocated to the remote region in the early 1930s, looking to to escape the modernization of the developing world.
About 1.5 times more residents of the hamlet report their mother tongue being Germanic (such as Plautdietsch, also known as Mennonite Low German) than English, according to Statistics Canada data.
La Crete is one of several Mennonite communities across Canada that sprung up over the past two centuries when the federal government offered incentives for people to work the land in exchange for autonomy to run schools and preserve their faith, language, and culture.
However, in the 1900s, the world wars and shifting provincial education policies dissolved many of those original federal accommodations, creating friction that led to some Mennonites leaving Canada for South America (with some eventually migrating back north) and attributing to a mistrust of authority which has carried into the modern day.
As a result of the investigation, RCMP said Eva Bueckert, 37, of Cleardale, Alta., has been charged with assault with a weapon.
She is scheduled to appear in court Fort Vermilion on Aug. 11.
— With files from Karen Bartko, Global News
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