The director of P.E.I.’s Public Schools Branch says the organization only connected two classroom incidents involving Matthew Alan Craswell after he was arrested on unrelated child pornography charges last summer.
Tracy Beaulieu sat down with CBC News for an interview Tuesday for the first time since Craswell pleaded guilty to sexual touching at Stratford’s Glen Stewart Primary, as well as child pornography offences, last week.
“Once we found out about the charges that were in place for Mr. Craswell, we went and looked into our records to see, was there anything that we had? And it did unfold that there was an investigation done in April [2024],” Beaulieu told CBC News.
“At that moment in time we thought ‘we need to notify police.'”
Craswell, 40, originally faced only child pornography charges related to possession and distribution after he used the messaging app Kik to send images depicting child sex abuse that were flagged by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States.
CBC News reached out to the PSB at that time to confirm that the Matthew Craswell who was charged was the same one who was advertising himself online as a P.E.I. substitute teacher.
The charges related to the Glen Stewart incident were laid in the following days.
“There was another incident that came up and we realized we need a centralized tracking system,” Beaulieu said.
“If the information would have been in a centralized location, we might have identified trends in that and looked at things a little bit differently.”
The first report known to CBC of Craswell’s behaviour was at a school in June 2023.
Little is known about this event, but sources told CBC News it happened at a Charlottetown-area elementary school.
Beaulieu said the incident was investigated, but would not share details for privacy reasons.
“We had not had any information at that point in time through the investigation that happened to suggest that there was malicious intent by Matthew Craswell,” Beaulieu said. “There would have been an investigation that involved statements from parents, and statements from students and staff, and that was the decision that was made at the time.
“However, now we hear quite a different story and that’s what’s really difficult.”
Court records show the details of that incident came to light for investigators last fall, after Craswell’s devices had been seized from his Cornwall home and there was an analysis of his online activity.
Investigators learned that Craswell boasted about sexually touching three girls while teaching them.
Police had been in contact with the girls’ families after that, but parents ultimately decided not to allow their children to move forward with police interviews, so the investigation did not continue and Craswell was never charged for that incident.
The only school incident for which Craswell faced charges was at Glen Stewart the next year.
After that incident, the parent went to the school’s principal at the time, who consulted with the PSB.
In both cases, neither police nor Child Protection Services were contacted.
“The Child Protection Act requires mandatory reporting of suspected cases of child sexual abuse to the Director of Child Protection or a peace officer and applies to everyone including school/program personnel,” reads P.E.I.’s Child Sex Abuse Protocol.
“The obligation to report is unrestricted by any pre-condition that the complaint be first reported within the respective departments, services or agencies, even if the perpetrator is alleged to be an employee of that institution, service or agency.”
Beaulieu said the PSB did its own investigations into both cases and found no evidence to suggest the incidents, in which the students were touched on their stomach and legs by Craswell, were sexual in nature.
“Those decisions would have been made based on the statement of facts at the time about whether there was an intent and harm directed at students,” Beaulieu said. “From that, I have been informed there was no intent or malicious intent behind it. And that’s why there would not have been a call.”
Beaulieu told CBC News it is standard for schools to conduct their own investigations with assistance from the Public Schools Branch’s human resources or student services teams.
“People won’t allow predatory behaviour if they suspect that it’s there,” she said.
Another detail that came out in court was that following the April 2024 internal investigation, the decision was made to only allow Craswell to teach older children going forward.
Beaulieu said that was because of Craswell’s own background and experience, and it was unconnected to the reported incident and investigation done at Glen Stewart.
“It was deemed that he’s high-school trained. And placements of people tend to be in the areas that they are formally trained,” Beaulieu said.
“If anybody would have suspected that he had a criminal intent in mind, he wouldn’t have been placed anywhere in our system. Not high school. Not anywhere. He would have been done… RCMP would have been notified.”
When asked about the authority the PSB has to conduct investigations instead of allowing trained police investigators to take over, Beaulieu said “that’s where we have engaged with working with child protective services.”
She added, “We want to talk with police and really outline all of those factors so that we ensure that the people that are discussing these matters and investigating these matters have the appropriate training and understanding.”
Beaulieu said the PSB has already begun those conversations with both child protection and police services.
“We can ensure going forward that we are all solid making those decisions,” she said.
The director said other changes have already been made, and they did not wait for Craswell’s guilty pleas last week.
According to Beaulieu, the PSB adopted the recently announced centralized tracking system for staff complaints over the last school year.
All school staff have also participated in the newly required Commit to Kids training program from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
Former chief justice of P.E.I. Supreme Court named to handle review of PSB’s handling of complaints
Beaulieu said the PSB will do whatever it takes to regain the trust of Island families, and it’s open to other suggestions.
When asked about accountability in the Public Schools Branch, Beaulieu said there is only one person accountable for what happened.
“It’s Matthew Craswell,” she said.
“What we need to do as a system is make sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure that someone like a Matthew Craswell doesn’t get through those gaps and cracks anymore.”
