Article content

Put your child in Uwe Lieflander’s choir and he’ll hold her hand, fix her posture and dig his fingers under her ribcage to show her how to breathe.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or School choirmaster quits after complaint over hands-on approach Back to video

The Ottawa choir director may also lift her off the ground in a game of tag, which they’ll play with other children at evening practices, parents watching from the sidelines.

A recent game of tag, however, put an end to the Ottawa Catholic School Board’s choir program after a parent complained about Mr. Lieflander. He quit, saying he refuses to be part of a “culture of fear” that prohibits teachers from touching children at all.

His departure from the pilot program has not only devastated many of the 1,700 elementary school participants and their parents, it has also raised questions about hands-off policies in schools and whether they go too far.

“I, being on the outside have always said to myself ‘I will go into the school, but I will not take part in this fear culture,’ ” Mr. Lieflander said on Thursday. “If the [circumstance] of the moment requires me to give a hug or requires me to pump the diaphragm or straighten shoulders or to hold a child to make them safe, then I will.”