15-year-ban given to B.C. teacher who messaged student more than 190 times in 3 weeks

A teacher in B.C. has had their teaching certificate cancelled and is banned from reapplying for 15 years for professional misconduct relating to calls and messages to a student.

The British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation (BCCTR) issued the penalty to the teacher, whose name and school district were redacted in the consent resolution agreement, after the district made a report about the teacher in March 2024.

The consent resolution agreement says that in an unspecified three week period, the teacher exchanged more than 190 “increasingly personal and intimate messages” on the school’s MS Teams platform with a secondary student.

Most of the messages were sent between 8 p.m. and midnight.

“These messages included giving each other compliments about their physical appearance and about having a slow dance together,” the consent resolution agreement says.

After the three week period, the teacher and student both attended a school event, during which the teacher and student exchanged messages about the teacher picking up the student.

“The last message on MS Teams was from the Student giving the Teacher the Student’s cellphone number,” the consent resolution agreement said.

“The Teacher and Student made calls to one another by phone over 1,000 times in an approximately 16-month period and many of the calls were longer than 1.5 hours.”

The teacher was questioned by the district about having contact with the student and the consent resolution agreement says they were dishonest during the questioning.

The teacher was suspended by the district on March 6, 2024, the same day the teacher was reported to the BCCTR.

The BCCTR says the teacher agrees their conduct constitutes professional misconduct and agreed to the cancellation of their certificate.

The ban on re-applying for a certificate is for 15 years, and the date it started is also redacted. During this time, they will not be able to apply for a certificate to teach in the kindergarten to Grade 12 education system.

“The Teacher misused their position of power and trust to exploit a student for the Teacher’s own personal advantage,” the BCCTR agreement says when explaining why this was a reasonable consequence.

“The Teacher’s conduct was a fundamental breach of a teacher’s duty to students and to the public.”

“The Teacher was dishonest and did not maintain the integrity, credibility and reputation of the profession.”