Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

A B.C. physical education teacher has been suspended and ordered to take a course after making students play a game in which he touched them inappropriately.

Michael James Granville Rhodes has been suspended for four days and ordered to take the Creating a Positive Learning Environment course after he touched students without their consent during a game called British Bulldog, according to a Jan. 24 agreement from the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

He was temporarily not allowed to teach in the K-12 school system, but the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation has agreed to allow him to resume teaching provided he takes the suspension and completes the course.

Rhodes was a physical education teacher and vice-principal in School District No. 70 in Pacific Rim on Vancouver Island between 2014 and 2019.

As a gym teacher he had high school students play British Bulldog where some players are tacklers and the rest are bulldogs who have to crawl on hands and knees across wrestling mats to the other side. The goal of the game is for the tacklers to flip the bulldogs onto their backs on the floor while bulldogs try to avoid being flipped.

Rhodes would usually start the game as the tackler. He gave out participation marks in class so if students didn’t participate in the game it would affect their grade.

“Rhodes often flipped students, including female students. He flipped students either to their side or back, sometimes being face to face with the student in very close proximity or being overtop of the student,” the decision reads.

READ MORE: Suspension and therapy for BC teacher who yelled at Grade 7 class

There were students who were uncomfortable playing the game, but they played anyway to make sure they got the participation marks. The agreement says that on at least one occasion a female student reacted to Rhodes during the game by shouting “don’t touch me” and left class.

The decision cites another incident in the 2018-2019 school year during a Grade 11 and 12 physical education class where Rhodes came up behind a female student, wrapped his arms around her stomach area, and holding her back against his torso and her butt against his lower abdomen lifted her into the air for a few seconds before he set her down.

“She was upset and left class,” the agreement reads. 

Rhodes was initially punished with a 15 day suspension without pay in November 2023. He also transferred to a teaching on-call position for three years, and he had to complete the course Reinforcing Respectful Professional Boundaries.

He was also barred from teaching physical education, but he was allowed to continue coaching in the district as long as he avoided physical demonstrations with students unless they gave consent. 

Rhodes gave an undertaking, a legal promise, not to teach in the K-12 school system in B.C. which was in place for six months in 2023.

Now, Rhodes is going to be able to keep his teaching certificate and teach in the K-12 system as long as he accepts another four-day suspension and completes the Creating a Positive Learning Environment course.

As part of the agreement Rhodes admitted the facts of the case are true.

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