A teacher has been sued by the Canadian International School for not declaring a sexual harassment complaint made by a student at a school he was previously employed at.
According to a writ filed to the Court of First Instance, the school said Sanjay Lalwani should have disclosed a sexual harassment complaint that was made before he began working at CDNIS.
Lalwani joined the CDNIS in June 2008 and his contract was renewed five times, with the latest one being effective from August 1 last year to July 31 this year.
He was made redundant by the school on April 2, 2015, after a 23-year-old student lodged a formal complaint in October 2014.
It emerged on October 16, 2014 that at a previous school that Lalwani worked at, the English Schools Foundation’s Kennedy School, a parent of a student filed a complaint in October 2003 alleging that Lalwani had sexually harassed a 12-year-old student. Lalwani worked for the Kennedy School from October 1995 to February 2004. The Kennedy School suspended Lalwani and terminated his contract in 2004.
The writ added that Lalwani’s failure to declare a previous complaint was especially important given that he would have been entrusted by the school with the care and welfare of young children.
The school said Lalwani had induced the school into concluding all six employment contracts to his benefit by not disclosing the complaint, which would have affected the decision to hire him.
The school is calling on the court to declare all of Lalwani’s employment contracts invalid and is also demanding damages, costs and a declaration that his employment can be terminated by summary dismissal.
