On Wednesday, July 30th, 2014, Toronto resident Bayol Avah was arrested for impersonating a substitute teacher for close to two months.  Avah is a 27 year old black male.  Because of his actions, he is being charged with 5 different counts of personation to gain advantage.  Not much more information has been given about this case except a list of the schools he was teaching at.  Without more information given to the public, can this story be all entirely true?

The Toronto District School Board (TSBD) could not answer to whether or not Avah was being paid for teaching at the schools.  If, in fact, he wasn’t being paid, I personally think that, yes, even though it is a crime for impersonating one for your own gain, this man wasn’t really in the wrong.  I mean, he was working as a special-needs assistant and teacher’s aide.  What is he to gain if he wasn’t being paid for assisting special-needs students?  Unless he was in any way harming or harassing these children, I see no personal gain.  Maybe he just has a good heart and finds it his duty to help those with learning disabilities.  Of course, he could have gotten a volunteer position or actually worked as a registered teacher and gotten his job legally but he must have certainly had a reason to pose as a teacher.

Maybe, he is legally a teacher and eligible for a job but the TDSB wouldn’t hire him because he is a black male or maybe there was something else on his record that didn’t please them.  Maybe he was charged for something he ended up not doing.  The charges could have been dropped but the school board might have decided not to hire him anyways because of the racial stereotype about black people (how I feel proud being taught by a black teacher, let alone a black male teacher… it is a rare occurrence).  And if he wasn’t being paid, maybe he so badly wanted to put his skills to use and, by any means, work with the special-needs students no matter what the cost.

What if he did know the teacher he was impersonating?  What if they were close friends and the teacher let Avah pose as him because he knew how much teaching meant to him?  Where was that teacher all those two months he was being impersonated?  He must have known that he was being mimicked by Avah, to not teach for that long.  Who knows, maybe if the school was paying Avah, Avah was giving the money to the real teacher because he just loved his job more than the money, or maybe the real teacher was paying Avah to teach in his place.  Maybe the real teacher was sick or unable to teach and allowed Avah to teach for him and split the money with him afterwards.

Shouldn’t a supply teacher have an identity card?  The school board should implement mandatory checking of staff identity cards since it seems they don’t have that rule yet.  I know a lot of money was spent recently to enhance school security.  In my school, all doors that used to be open around the school are now locked and nobody can open from outside.  Security cameras are allover the school (I feel paranoid when I am using the washrooms, as a result I prefer doing some serious calls of nature at home to avoid being caught in cameras).  All visitors go through the main entrance by pressing the buzzer and door being opened after they identify themselves   etc., but surprisingly supply teachers seems to have been  deemed so safe to not be checked when they come to teach.

Thinking of it, maybe all that money should have been used for things students actually care for like school equipment or supplies if someone can get into a school that easily.  Suppose there are staff identity cards (I see most supply teachers wear a VISITOR CARD in my school), how can nobody know the differences between Avah’s appearance and the real teacher’s appearance?  Are they identical twins?  Either way, I believe the real teacher had something to do with this and should be found and be at Avah’s trial on September 9th.

In the end, if Avah ends up being a good hearted person who didn’t teach for the money, I don’t think he should have to face jail time for posing as a teacher.  I have been in several situations where I had to ask Judge Judy of my Africanadian household (My Mom) to be merciful with her sentences (consequences) whenever my sister and I do something wrong, and her answer has always been, “Son, God will always forgive you, but the world will not”.  Poor Avah, I would wish you get to do some community service or house arrest for your sentence, but definitely not prison term, but who knows, the world will always punish you.

I believe Avah truly was trying to help the students with learning disabilities.  I think resorting to impersonation was a last resort plan of his.  If I were in the situation in which I could teach the leaders of tomorrow but, in return, I would be deemed a criminal, I would take that risk.  Martin Luther King Jr. risked his life for freedom.  He persevered for what he believed was right and just.  If Avah really thought it was right to give more attention to those who can’t learn like others, even though he would be risking his career and life, I am behind him till the verdict is revealed.

Angelous