WATERLOO REGION — The public school board is paying a private security guard to protect one employee from another.

Every workday at 6 p.m. the Barber-Collins guard escorts Karen Gerber from her parked car to the front door of Westvale Public School in Waterloo. The guard returns five hours later to escort her back to her car.

Gerber, 58, cleans the school in the evenings. The guard is there to protect her from Todd Nicholson, who cleans at Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute in Kitchener.

The Ontario Court of Justice found that Nicholson telephoned Gerber and threatened to cut her throat. The court found he later drove by her house and pointed his fingers at her in a gun gesture while she sat on her front porch.

Gerber and Nicholson have no personal relationship. They are longtime school custodians. In 2014 she reported an incident that led Waterloo Regional Police to investigate him for child pornography. He was not charged.

Now the school board's anti-harassment policy is being put to the test in the real world, with uncertain results.

The investigation was "quite shocking and a terrible experience," Nicholson testified. He told a court he's upset with Gerber.

"It's unfair," he said.

Gerber says she's terrified of Nicholson. "I'm scared to go to work. I'm scared to go shopping. I'm scared to leave my home," she said in an interview. She gets counselling and takes medication to cope with the stress. She trembles sometimes.

It angers her that the Waterloo Region District School Board has not fired Nicholson after a court found that he bullied her.

"What more proof do they need?" she asks. She cites the board's anti-harassment policy, intended to protect witnesses like her. It states: "This policy prohibits reprisals against individuals, acting in good faith, who report incidents of harassment or act as witnesses. The board shall take all reasonable and practical measures to prevent reprisals, threats of reprisal, or further harassment."

The public school board would not comment, calling it a personnel matter.

Two employment lawyers not involved with the case say it's no simple matter to enforce an anti-harassment policy.

"There's no doubt that the employer is walking in a landmine," said Lisa Stam, who practises employment law with the Toronto-area firm Koldorf Stam.

Hiring a security guard suggests the school board is taking measures to protect Gerber, lawyers say. This would be in line with board policy.

"They've taken the threat seriously," said Priya Sarin, who practises employment law with the Toronto firm Whitten and Lublin.

But it's not clear if hiring private security can be a long-term solution.

"If I was a parent in that school board, I can only imagine how uncomfortable I would be with this whole thing," Stam said.

Gerber cites a peace bond that the Ontario Court of Justice imposed on Nicholson last September. The court ordered Nicholson to stay 200 metres away from her for a year and not contact her.

"The court finds that there is credible evidence that you are of a retaliatory nature," justice of the peace Ruth Legate Exon told Nicholson, in ordering him to steer clear of Gerber.

"The court finds that you did call her and utter threatening words," Legate Exon said. "Further, the court finds that you did drive by her house to be seen to intimidate her. It is a classic example of bullying and it has come at a huge emotional and psychological cost to Ms. Gerber.

"The court finds that on a balance of probabilities, Karen Gerber has reasonable grounds to fear you."

Gerber and Nicholson have known each other for 15 years. Occasionally they have cleaned at the same schools. Typically they ignored each other while doing their jobs.

On Sept. 13, 2014, both attended a meeting of their union, the Custodial and Maintenance Association, a bargaining unit within the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation. At the time they were working at different schools. The meeting was held to discuss union business.

During the meeting, Nicholson displayed his cellphone. Gerber says that on its screen, she saw a vulgar picture of a young, naked girl. "I was stunned," she said in an interview. "It was disgusting."

She reported it to her union executive, in part because the union had asked her to watch for harassing conduct at meetings. She said she cried when reporting it.

Nicholson has denied displaying child pornography. He testified that he showed his daughter's graduation picture from her prom night. Gerber stood by her claim of what she saw when Nicholson challenged her in court.

Gerber would not comment on how her union handled her allegation. The custodians' union would not comment. "The union will be in a tough spot of having to represent both people," Stam said.

The union has an antibullying policy for its members. It states: "We cannot condone or tolerate intimidating, demeaning, hostile and aggressive behaviour against another member." It says members could be barred from meetings for violating the policy.

After Gerber reported to her union what she saw on Nicholson's cellphone, the school board approached her and asked her to report what she saw to managers. She did so.

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The board responded by suspending Nicholson with pay, sending him home for almost four months before he was cleared.

"Police did conduct an investigation based on information from numerous sources," said Staff Sgt. Mike Haffner, of Waterloo Regional Police. "If information did present itself through the investigation, criminal charges would have been laid."

Nicholson's laptop was examined. Police did not examine the cellphone, Nicholson testified. Haffner would not explain why.

When the investigation concluded without charges, the school board returned Nicholson to work early in 2015. He lost his bid to become a union steward where he works, a court was told.

Last September at Gerber's request, the Crown secured a peace bond against Nicholson. Nicholson, then 41, opposed it. The peace bond leaves him without a criminal record but requires him to stay away from Gerber until September.

"I didn't really want to enter into a peace bond because I haven't done anything wrong," he testified.

In her ruling, Legate Exon, a former school principal, characterizes Nicholson as a mean-spirited bully whose testimony is not believable, who has retaliated against others who cross him, and who blames Gerber for his troubles.

Nicholson provided self-serving evidence that was "surprisingly calm in its delivery and on the whole not believable," Legate Exon ruled. His evidence was "not forthright from the beginning. It was contradictory."

"The testimony of Ms. Gerber was compelling, consistent and credible," Legate Exon ruled. "It is apparent that she's operating in good faith doing the best she can to be a responsible citizen and an employee (with integrity)."

Legate Exon cites eight incidents in which Gerber felt threatened or believed that Nicholson drove to Westvale Public School or to her home to harass her. Gerber reported some of the incidents to police. Nicholson denied them.

The first incident happened after Gerber reported what she saw on his cellphone. The court was told that Nicholson called her at home to say: "If you don't shut your mouth, I'll cut your throat. Watch your back."

Three days later Nicholson drove by her house. Gerber was on her front porch. He made a gun gesture with his finger and laughed.

"This drive-by action was of someone wanting to be seen and it begs the question, why? It is very plausible for the sole purpose of intimidation," Legate Exon ruled.

Nicholson would not be interviewed, citing legal advice.

The school board has designated another custodian to keep an eye on Gerber while she's cleaning inside Westvale Public School. It's part of a formal safety plan.

Gerber feels safe working inside the locked school. She arrives to work long after schoolchildren are gone, but she's not been working a full shift, and says the school board is pressing her to begin cleaning at 3:30 p.m.

That's 10 minutes after the final school bell. Schoolchildren might still be around. Gerber worries this might expose them to dangers if Nicholson shows up.

"I don't know where to turn any more," she said.

- Workplace policies easier to write than enforce