Catholic school teacher fired after showing 'graphic' Crusades video to Grade 5 students

The YouTube app on an iPad in Baltimore on March 20, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Patrick Semansky

A Catholic school teacher from Vancouver was fired after showing elementary students a video about the Crusades that featured depictions of "violence, persecution, and torture," according to a new disciplinary decision.

Hani Nabil Naguib Amin Malti was working for the Catholic Independent Schools of Vancouver Archdiocese when he showed the YouTube video to a class of Grade 5 students back in January 2017.

Documents from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation indicate the seven-minute-long video was "age-inappropriate" for the class because it contained graphic drawings illustrating the violence of the Crusades, a series of medieval religious wars that were sanctioned by the church.

"Some students reported being unable to get the images from the film out of their minds, causing them to feel disturbed and scared," reads the Sept. 25, 2019 decision, which was posted online this week.

Eight days after Malti played the video in class, his employer issued him a retroactive three-day suspension and fired him.

The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation decided to review the incident in May of that year, though it did not issue a citation to Malti until August 2019. It's unclear why it took more than two years for the matter to move forward.

The disciplinary decision indicates Malti ultimately agreed to a reprimand on top of his previous punishments.

His teaching certificate remains valid, and is scheduled to expire on June 30, 2020.

Read the full disciplinary decision below.