B.C. teacher reprimanded for sending ‘overtly angry’ email to Indigenous student

An empty classroom is pictured at Eric Hamber Secondary school in Vancouver, B.C. Monday, March 23, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

A B.C. teacher has been reprimanded and must complete a remedial course after admitting to sending an angry email to a student and having a tense exchange with another employee, according to the regulatory body for the profession.

The teacher’s name and school district are not mentioned in the consent agreement with the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation posted online Tuesday in order to protect the identity of students who were “harmed, abused or exploited” by the educator.

The agreement deals with two interactions that occurred in 2021, the first concerns two Indigenous siblings who “come from a challenging environment,” which the teacher knew, according to the commissioner.

During an email exchange with one sibling about what the school could do to support the other student, the teacher signed off an email with “you are more than welcome to go to another educational institution if you are so unhappy with our services.”

The commissioner described the email as “overtly angry and disrespectful.”

The teacher then forwarded the exchange to another employee, which included the line “obviously I am at the end of my rope with this family.”

The commissioner said that the teacher’s email to the student “did not contribute toward truth, reconciliation and healing.”

In the second incident, the teacher asked another employee to give a T-shirt to a student who was violating the school’s dress code.

“When the employee did not immediately act on the teacher’s request, the teacher said in a frustrated tone, ‘when I ask you to do something you need to do it now!’ The teacher then grabbed the T-shirt from the employee’s hand and said ‘Fine, I will do it,‘” the decision reads.

The regulator said the exchange happened in front of students and another employee—the teacher later wrote an email to their colleagues apologizing for the “temper tantrum,” in their words.

“The teacher’s exchange with a district employee did not role model appropriate and respectful behaviour for students at the school,” the commissioner wrote.

As a result of the two incidents, the district suspended the teacher for one day without pay.

The commissioner further gave the teacher a reprimand and ordered them to complete the course “Diversity and Trauma” at the Justice Institute of B.C., which they did last September.