A teacher from the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district had his teaching licence banned for a total of 10 years after messaging and planning to meet a person who he thought was a 14-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr.
Carlo Pavan messaged the person who he thought was a youth – but was actually an adult man – multiple times in March 2023, according to a decision released by the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation (BCCTR) on Tuesday.
The first text exchange occurred on the evening of March 14, after Pavan messaged the account first.
“What brings you on Grindr?” reads the exchange released by the BCCTR.
“Well I’m 14 so friends and maybe more idk,” responded the account that was run by a man who posed as youth “in an attempt to ‘catch’ persons he suspects to be predators,” says the BCCTR.
Dozens of compromising messages were included the BCCTR’s disciplinary decision and show the Pavan initiated the messages with the “youth” account every day from March 14 to 18.
Exchanges included the “youth” account asking Pavan to send him a picture, to which Pavan said it was “too risky.”
“There’s like vigilantes and cops I dunno if you’re real,” reads Pavan’s response.
Another day, Pavan asked if the “youth” had met other men on Grindr before, and asked “What’d you do with them when you met?”
“I’m just trying to figure out what you’re comfortable with/looking for,” said Pavan, following up.
On March 18, 2023, after initiating contact with the account again, Pavan offered to pick up the supposed youth to grab a coffee and walk along the waterfront.
The messages included where and when they would meet, and what colour vehicle Pavan was in.
“This last message was sent at 10:06 p.m. Shortly after, the Person [who ran the account] approached Pavan while Pavan was sitting in his car. Once confronted, Pavan drove away while the Person filmed him,” reads the BCCTR decision.
“The Person posted on a Facebook site both the messages exchanged with Pavan and the video recording of the Person approaching Pavan in his car. Pavan was identified as a teacher on the Facebook site.”
On March 21, 2023, the BCCTR launched its own investigation into Pavan, and on April 11 of that year his teaching licence was suspended for three years. On June 13, 2023, the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district also fired him.
In the BCCTR’s decision released Tuesday, the commissioner also said that Pavan’s teaching licence would be banned for another seven years.
The BCCTR says its decision was based on several factors, including that Pavan thought the person he was messaging was an underage student, because his conduct became known to the public through the Facebook post, because his actions undermined the public’s confidence in the education system – and because “communicating with the Youth in the manner that he did, and in asking to meet with the Youth alone at night, Pavan failed to maintain appropriate boundaries.”
The decision also noted that Pavan admits to all of the details included in the BCCTR’s decision.
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