(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
December 17, 2023 - 6:00 PM
A BC teacher was suspended for waiting hours before letting a principal know of a student's threat of self harm.
She later resigned from that school, but not before she shared her criticisms of the principal in an email to a group of parents, according to a decision from the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.
Deisy Ospina-Ostios had her teaching licence suspended for five days roughly a year after she was reported to the regulator.
Ospina-Ostios was working at an independent school when she learned that a student threatened to harm themself. She waited three hours before sending a text message to the school principal, according to the decision.
It's not clear how she learned of the threat or what she did in those three hours, but the provincial regulator found she "created a risk of physical and emotional harm" to the student by failing to tell their parents or school administrators.
She later revealed information about that student in an email to another student's parent, breaching the vulnerable student's privacy.
On Nov. 18, 2022, the school suspended Ospina-Ostios for two days while it investigated her. On Nov. 24, the school sent her a "letter of expectation," but she resigned that same day, according to the decision.
She "acted in an unprofessional manner" when she sent her criticisms to of the school's principal to a group of parents before she resigned.
Her last work day at the school was Dec. 8, 2022, according to the decision.
The school reported her to the regulator on Dec. 23, which decided to suspend her from teaching for five days.
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