B.C. teacher agrees to 15-year ban over sexual relationship with Grade 12 student

A B.C. teacher has agreed to the cancellation of his teaching certificate and a 15-year ban on applying for a new one after admitting to having a sexual relationship with a student.

The office of B.C.’s Commissioner for Teacher Regulation published an anonymized summary of its consent agreement with the teacher on its website Tuesday.

The document withholds the teacher’s name and other key information in order to protect the identity of the student “who was harmed, abused or exploited” in the case. It does not say where in B.C. the misconduct occurred, nor does it indicate the student’s gender.

According to the document, the teacher held a subject-restricted independent school teaching certificate and was employed as a secondary school teacher until August 2024.

At that time, following a report from the school’s principal to the commissioner, he signed an undertaking not to teach in any role requiring certification from the provincial Ministry of Education and Child Care.

The consent agreement summary indicates the student – referred to as “Student A” throughout – was one of the teacher’s pupils.

“When Student A was in Grade 12, the teacher breached professional boundaries by allowing Student A to confide in him and become dependent on him,” the document reads, adding that the teacher made inappropriate physical contact by touching “the back of Student A’s bare knees” on several occasions.

“On the day Student A graduated from the school, the teacher kissed Student A,” the document continues. “Student A told the teacher that they loved him. The teacher responded by saying that he loved Student A too.”

The teacher also “engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship” with the student “around the time of Student A’s graduation,” according to the document.

It does not specify whether the relationship became sexual before or after the student graduated.

According to the summary, the teacher admitted that this conduct constituted professional misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a teacher, and agreed to the certificate cancellation and teaching ban.

The summary lists three factors that led the commissioner to conclude these sanctions were appropriate.

First, the inappropriate relationship “arose out of the teacher-student relationship.” Second, the teacher “demonstrated a serious failure to maintain appropriate boundaries.” And third, the teacher “engaged in conduct which damaged a student’s emotional safety and well-being.”