Students of SCH4UI (block D/E)
Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute
Kitchener, ON N2G 2P8
November 11, 2019
Mr. Ray Teed
Principal
Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute
Kitchener, ON N2G 2P8
Dear Mr. Teed
We have decided to keep our names anonymous due to the sake of the teacher’s personal agenda in the case that she finds out.
With all due respect, this letter and petition is not a personal vendetta but a serious matter that must be immediately reviewed and acted upon. This is also a very significant problem that negatively affects the mental wellbeing and performance of the majority of the students, regardless of their overall academic ability. This letter and petition are led by the majority of Mrs. Epplett-Stuart’s classes. Additional disclaimer, this letter is not made by low average students for the sole purpose of a personal agenda but by average students who witnessed both good and, bad students struggle in this course.
Mrs. Epplett-Stuart, a fourth-year chemistry teacher, has already been released from the International Baccalaureate program due to lacking the ability to explain, describe and teach the course material including helping students to meet learning criteria as provided by the department of sciences at Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute. We write this letter to the school administrator to explain our issues with Mrs. Epplett-Stuart. One of the many issues is that she always brushes through basic chemistry concepts without explaining to them when asked a question, she either repeats herself or asks the student to research the information for answers online. To further support the fact that she lacks the ability to teach is that she has been seen often watching videos of the lesson for the day prior to our lecture and in most cases was not prepared for the lecture showing that she lacks organizational skills. There were also individual cases of students having extreme negative thoughts in general, who fear to bring in discussion with other students, their parents, or any of the teachers due to the potential negative effects that can lead it to. Though it is ironic, they consulted a close friend who shared this disclosed information with us. Students have also experienced anxiety as well as stressful thoughts and often took some time before attending class.
Thereafter, she refused to provide a student with course material and insulted the individual by claiming that the individual “stole” the missing worksheets and rubrics when in reality she did not print enough. She has also refused extra work that could be graded, which was a part of the curriculum, and her direct response was "It is in the curriculum but I won't bother marking them". In the past, she has been away for major lessons in our units that we have covered so far, and in one, the substitute teacher did not understand what we were tasked to do either, which proves the inability of explanation but also shows unclear instructions. Not only were her instructions unclear on our lessons but on our assessments and our tests. We believe that this also took a toll on our grade due to the unclear instruction, we were misled towards the answer. We were asked to come in on our free time for extra help, but some students have reported that those segments have no reasonable impact to their understanding.
To conclude, we have spoken to numerous students that had her in the past, in some cases up to 5 years ago, and have all supported the proof in our letter. In the event of our complaint is not being taken seriously, we have been offered parental intervention from multiple students to support us. I hope you take our letter seriously, understand the issues brought up, and act upon it to provide a better education to your students whilst ensuring the stability of their mental wellness as well as their futures, in regards to university. Please respect the students who decided to remain anonymous.
Sincerely,
Students of SCH4UI (Block D and E)