B.C. principal suspended after brushing aside student’s 'inappropriate touching' complaint | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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B.C. principal suspended after brushing aside student’s 'inappropriate touching' complaint

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A B.C. principal has had his professional certificate of qualification suspended for three days after doubting a student’s credibility after they disclosed they had been touched inappropriately by a teacher.

In 2017, the student disclosed to the principal that one of the teachers at the secondary school had touched them inappropriately, according to a redacted consent resolution summary released by the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation. Names and the location of the school district have been taken out of the published summary to protect the identity of the student, the report says.

The student indicated they did not want to remain in the teacher’s class and that they also wanted the principal to tell their parents what had occurred.

The principal knew the student was scheduled to be in the accused teacher’s class later that day but did not remove the student as he doubted the credibility of the student’s disclosure, the report says. The student attended the afternoon class as scheduled with the teacher.

The complaint against the teacher was made at 8:30 a.m. but the principal did not contact the student’s mother until 3:30 p.m. to let her know what the student had told him.

“As the mother was on her way to the school to pick up her children, she missed the call,” the report says.

The mother was not prepared to support the student at the end of the day.

The principal agreed to various paragraphs in the consent resolution agreement with the commissioner which constitute professional misconduct and agreed to a three-day suspension of his certificate of qualification.

In determining the suspension, the Commissioner considered if the teacher failed to adequately protect the student from emotional and physical harm and if the teacher made an assumption about the student’s credibility which impacted his judgement with respect to the complaint.


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