Ottawa teacher found guilty of professional misconduct after comments in class

An Ottawa public school teacher has been found guilty of professional misconduct after making sexually suggestive comments to a student in class and telling another student “not to have hope” in his class.

An Ontario College of Teachers disciplinary panel found Michael Van Gentevoort guilty of professional misconduct in April after holding hearings in 2023 and 2024 in connection to alleged incidents in a class in 2019. A hearing was held earlier this month as part of the penalty phase.

Van Gentevoort was terminated by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board on Aug. 21, 2020. His teaching status on the Ontario College of Teachers website is listed as “inactive/non-practising.”

According to the decision by the Ontario College of Teachers, a female student testified that in September 2019, the teacher made an inappropriate comment about chalk in class, saying he repeatedly said, “Why don’t you come up here and play with my chalk.”

“At the time, Student 1 did not understand what the Member meant but felt uncomfortable and laughed nervously,” the decision states. “Afterward, she spoke with a student who observed the incident and came to think that the Member’s tone of voice insinuated a sexual suggestion.”

Another student told the panel that the teacher repeated the chalk comment five to seven times.

The panel also heard from students that the teacher allegedly told a student they “should not have hope” in his class, shared students’ grades in front of the class, yelled at students, and the teacher indicated his disappointment in how poorly the class did on a quiz.

According to the report, Van Gentevoort denied the chalk comment had sexual intent, saying he brought coloured chalk to help the student to “better understand the graphs he drew on the chalkboard because she said that she had difficulty understanding them.”

He also denied telling a student she should not have hope in his class, and denied he yelled at students or removed them from class.

The school is not named in the decision report from the Ontario College of Teachers and the class grade is redacted.

The disciplinary panel ruled Van Gentevoort engaged in acts of professional misconduct and sexual misconduct.

The 49-page decision says the panel concluded the chalk comment was a “sexual comment.” The panel also found the teacher yelled at students and “displayed a general lack of empathy towards students” by announcing the top three grades on a quiz and that “almost the whole class had failed.”

According to the Ontario College of Teachers website, if a member is found guilty of professional misconduct, penalties could include revoking a teacher’s certificate, suspending the teaching certificate for up to two years or imposing terms, conditions or limitations on the certificate.

Van Gentevoort has been a teacher since 2001 and started teaching at the school in the fall of 2013.