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A B.C. school district that was forced to rehire a teacher accused of having sex with a Grade 8 student will get another chance to get rid of the teacher after the B.C. Labour Relations Board ruled the case will go to a new hearing.

According to a Jan. 11 B.C. Labour Relations Board decision, the school district was denied a fair hearing when it lost its case with the teacher's union.

In June 2022, the union won and the labour relations board ordered the school district to reinstate the teacher and pay him $20,000 in damages.

However, the recent decision sent the matter back to the drawing board for the school district to once again argue that it was right to fire the teacher.

The issue dates back to 2019 when a B.C. teacher was fired for grooming a student for sexual exploitation.

The name of the teacher and the school district isn't named in the decision.

The decision said over a period of two years the teacher groomed the Grade 7 student and ultimately had sex with the then Grade 8 student in the classroom at lunchtime.

The teacher was promptly fired and the police began investigating.

While the police forwarded the case to Crown prosecutors they didn't pursue charges against the teacher.

The decision said the school was aware of the incident after a friend of the student showed them text messages about the alleged relationship.

Police were then called and the student began lengthy interviews with a detective.

At first, the student said the texts were a joke between her and her friend and she had not had a relationship with the teacher.

The police officer said she believed the student was lying to protect the teacher because the student was in love with him.

Through the course of the interviews, the student changed her story.

She said she had sex with the teacher but she'd lied to the police because she was in love with the teacher and wanted to protect him.

In the original decision, the labour relations arbitrator pulled apart the student's version of the events in a lengthy 93-page ruling.

"Without question (the) Student demonstrated a disturbing lack of care and awareness with respect to throwing around false allegations of serious wrongdoing about others as a 'joke,'" the arbitrator ruled.

The arbitrator highlighted inconsistencies in the student's story and said the student originally told the truth that no relationship took place, but was then "subtly coerced" by the police officer to change her story.

The arbitrator noted the student originally said the texts were a "joke that had gone too far." 

The arbitrator said the police officer "prompted, coaxed, cajoled, misled, coerced, and manipulated" the student into saying she'd had the relationship.

In its appeal, the school district argued it was denied a fair hearing as the police officer wasn't allowed to take part in the hearing.

The labour relations board agreed.

"The decision to disallow the (school district) from calling (the) detective to testify had such an impact on the fairness of the proceeding that it can only be concluded the (school district) was denied a fair hearing," the board ruled.

Ultimately, the case will be re-examined again, this time with testimony from the police officer.

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