Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

A BC teacher has been banned from the classroom for five years after he was caught messaging four female students in a manner that "approached grooming."

Jeffrey Forden Mooney gave up his teaching certificate in 2021 after he was caught, but the ban will continue for another five years as of Feb. 5, according to a decision by the province's regulator for teachers.

A discipline panel said Mooney used the West Vancouver private school's online messaging system to contact four female students, then "asked for secrecy" so he wouldn't be fired.

The specifics of what he said to the students were not detailed in the decision, but there were numerous descriptors used when referring to the messages. His contact with them was "relentless" and "inappropriate", continuing even after they stopped replying to him.

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It was also "exploitative and serious" that the messages were "personally invasive and included "sexual innuendo."

Though the school warned him about his lack of boundaries with the students he showed "no remorse" when he was confronted, according to the decision.

He didn't participate in the school's discipline process nor with the regulator during the hearing last year.

The discipline panel appointed by the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation found there was no sexual contact with the students, but said Mooney's behaviour was both discomforting for the students and damaged the reputation of all teachers.

"There was no evidence of actual harm to the students, other than their discomfort with the communications, which we do not mean to minimize. However, it may be assumed that the affected students will view their teachers as somewhat less trustworthy going forward," the decision reads.

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The panel heard evidence Mooney asked the grade 7 girls who they had crushes on, made derogatory comments about a school employee and made sexually suggestive comments, according to the Vancouver Sun.

The panel was also unable to make contact with him despite multiple attempts ahead of the hearing.

"Hopefully the results of this process will give them some comfort that they were heard and appropriate steps were taken, so that trust in their teachers may be regained," the recently published decision reads.

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