Canada

The Edmonton Public School Board says it will review how students are graded after a teacher was suspended for refusing to stop handing out zeros to students who didn't complete their work.

The board has voted unanimously to launch the review, which will begin after the summer break.

High school physics teacher Lynden Dorval is at the centre of the controversy.

His school, Ross Sheppard, has a policy of giving students an incomplete for assignments not handed in or tests missed, but Dorval refused to follow it.

Students started a petition to get him reinstated with some calling him the "Zero Hero."

Dorval figures his career is in limbo until the review is over, because he won't teach again unless he can give out zeros on merit.

"Under the conditions that I go back to doing what I was doing before, yes I'd go back to teaching," he told the special board meeting on Tuesday.

Dorval says he's surprised at the publicity his case is getting.

"People are angry that they weren't being informed. They didn't know what was going on, parents didn't know what was happening, so yeah, I was just surprised that so many people are concerned."

Student Jacob Gerber started a petition at the high school to try to get Dorval reinstated.

"If they do not suffer the consequence of the decision they make, they learn nothing at all, absolutely not," Gerber told the board.

"They do not learn to hand their work in on time, they don't learn accountability, they don't learn to work hard..."

(CHED)