A Maple Ridge resident who works in the Coquitlam school district may lose her job as an educational assistant after attention was drawn to photographs she posted of herself on an adults-only online platform.
Kristin MacDonald, who is currently off work due to back surgery on April 24, is an educational assistant in SD43. She was told by the school district she must stop all of her activities on the social media platform OnlyFans or, potentially, be terminated. She told Black Press she uses the money from OnlyFans to supplement her income as a single mother of one.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about teachers and teacher assistants having to take on second jobs. Entry level positions in the school district are about $38,000.
If you made minimum wage, your salary would be about $27,000. For contrast, members of parliament earn at least $160,000 and members of the legislative assembly of BC earn more than $115,000.
We expect teachers and assistants to go to school for a long time to get certified and then take a job making barely above min wage. Those who work in a school do so much more than just teach. The other day my 7-year-old daughter was walking back to her desk from the microwave, got bumped and ended up dropping her lunch on the floor.
She told me she felt so embarrassed and devastated when it happened. But the teacher assistant in the classroom that day gave my daughter her own lunch. (And probably also cleaned up the mess too.) Not only did my daughter get some food, she felt better about the whole situation when she was helped.
My other daughter in preschool has two wonderful teachers with hearts of gold and more patience than I could ever dream of.
We trust these people with our children’s lives. They take care of them during the day, they teach them, guide them, encourage and love them. They are playing a very strong role in shaping the next generation. And we pay them very little. I know a lot of teachers who pay for school supplies or things for their students out of pocket. Most teachers and assistants would say they do their jobs for love, not money.
However, some are leaving the profession because they simply can’t get ends to meet, they are undervalued and under-appreciated. I follow one former teacher on Instagram who left her teaching position to create social media content because she was burnt out and now she makes a lot more money.
We need to step up and value teachers more before it is too late. Even if we have to take a little off the top from the provincial politicians to pay for it.
-with files from Colleen Flanagan