B.C. teacher’s licence cancelled due to student exploitation

A B.C. teacher who exploited a student for their “own personal benefit” has lost their professional licence.

In the consent resolution agreement published Tuesday, a situation is laid out involving inappropriate comments and gifts of a sexual nature, as well as controlling behaviour, though the teacher’s name, gender, district and school are withheld in an attempt to protect the exploited student’s identity.

Summarizing the events that occurred from 2021 to 2022, the  BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation wrote that the youth was a student in the teacher’s class when the unusual behaviour started to emerge.

At some point, in that time frame, the teacher had moved the student into their home, established a “parent-child” relationship with them and told the student they loved them, according to the document.

The teacher also started to make negative comments about the student’s relationships, including the relationship with the student’s mother, the Commissioner said.

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“(They) sought to influence and control every aspect of the student’s life, withheld from the student money and personal items belonging to (the student) and made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature and gave the student gifts that were explicitly sexual in nature,” the Commissioner wrote in the decision.

These details were first brought to the school district where the teacher was employed, and in December 2022, they were dealt a 10-day suspension. The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation then ordered an interim suspension and opened an investigation the following January.

The decision posted Tuesday offers the rationale for the full licence cancellation.

The Commissioner said that the teacher was aware that the student was very vulnerable and set themselves up in a role of a parent and person who could be relied upon.

While in that position, they exerted influence and control over the student’s life, failed to contact the Ministry of Children and Family Development or obtain other support for the student.

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They then made many comments which were “inconsistent with their responsibility as a role model to students, including comments that were sexual in nature.”

The teacher also gave the students gifts that were explicitly sexual and created a risk of sexual harm.

“The teacher exploited the student for the teacher’s own personal benefit,” reads the decision.

The teacher, who had been licensed since 1998, agreed to the summary of offences and to not make any statement orally or in writing which contradicts the agreement.