A former vice-principal in School District 93 (Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique) has been reprimanded by the BC Teacher Regulation Branch (TRB) for taking matters into her own hands when someone left a soiled pair of underwear in a school bathroom.
TRB documents show the incident happened on June 19, 2018.
A dirty pair of underwear was found on top of a toilet in the boys’ bathroom, with feces on the floor nearby.
The principal of the school wasn’t in, so vice-principal Delphine Guérineau took charge to identify the student responsible.
“Guérineau did attend each classroom, and had each student show her the waistband of their underwear.”
She then inspected the underwear of male students in grades 7-11 by having them line up in a hallway and display their waistbands to her.
She was placed on leave two days later and fired on October 1, 2018.
Guérineau agreed with the TRB that her actions constituted professional misconduct.
The Comissioner found Guérineau’s actions had the potential to cause emotional harm to students, and she had failed to consider the consequences.
A petition posted online in 2018 on change.org in support of Guérineau references the incident, and says she was the vice-principal of École Au-coeur-de-l’Île in Comox at the time.