Minister of Education Jeanie McLean is releasing the Independent Review Report on the response to the 2019 incident at Hidden Valley Elementary School. The report was completed by Vancouver-based lawyer Amanda Rogers following her comprehensive independent review of the response. The independent review began in October 2021 at the request of Minister McLean. Today, Ms. Rogers provided the report to Minister McLean and it was subsequently shared with parents and families of Hidden Valley Elementary School in a meeting with Ms. Rogers and Minister McLean.
The Independent Review Report provides the first detailed account of what happened after allegations of child sexual abuse were raised at Hidden Valley Elementary School in 2019. The review was wide-ranging and involved parents directly impacted by the events at Hidden Valley Elementary School along with officials from all of the departments and agencies involved in the response to the incident. The Yukon government Cabinet waived Cabinet Confidentiality to ensure all available information was provided to Ms. Rogers for her review.
The Independent Review Report includes a number of findings about the incident and the multi-agency response as well as a number of recommendations to improve how incidents of this kind are handled in the future.
The Government of Yukon accepts all of the recommendations of the Independent Review Report.
We recognize the pain that has been caused at Hidden Valley and the need for healing. This independent review was a commitment I made directly to parents and my priority upon receiving the report was to share it with the parents and families first. Our government and the RCMP have acknowledged that this situation was not handled properly. We need to do better. This report will help us understand what happened and how we can all work together to prevent it from happening again. I have informed parents that our government will accept all the recommendations in this report and begin work to implement them.
Minister of Education Jeanie McLean
In October 2021, Minister McLean launched an independent review of the 2019 incident at Hidden Valley Elementary School.
The Government of Yukon and the RCMP acknowledged that mistakes were made in the response to the 2019 incident at Hidden Valley Elementary School. Minister of Education Jeanie McLean and Minister of Justice Tracy-Anne McPhee apologized to parents at Hidden Valley Elementary and acknowledged that steps could have been taken to better inform and support parents following the incident.
Renée Francoeur
Cabinet Communications
867-334-9194
renee.francoeur@yukon.ca