Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

A B.C. teacher has been suspended for a day for pushing a Grade 7 pupil out of a classroom.

According to March 20 B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation decision, Vancouver Island school teacher Blair Howard Murray Hughes put his hand on a student's shoulder and pushed the student out of the door.

The decision says the incident happened in December 2020 in Hughes' woodworking class.

"At the end of Hughes' woodshop class, his students saw their classmates from the home economics class mingling outside with the (another teacher). While Hughes had a rule requiring students in the woodshop class to remain inside until class the bell had rung and the class was dismissed, some students began making their way outside to their classmates," the decision says. "Hughes followed those students who had gone outside and, with a loud voice told his students to return to the woodshop."

One of the students told Hughes the other teacher had told them to come outside.

"Hughes and (the) student began having an increasingly heated discussion about when students could leave the woodshop. Hughes told (the) student in a raised voice that students were not allowed to go outside until the bell had rung."

The student then spoke back to the student and Hughes replied, "Stop being disrespectful. I'm not your mom and dad."

The decision says Hughes put his hand on the student's shoulder to guide him out of the classroom and then grabbed his wrist.

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The student told Hughes to stop touching him and the student then pushed him through the door.

Following the incident, the Sooke school district suspended Hughes for two days.

The middle-school teacher later signed a consent agreement with the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation admitting to the conduct.

"Hughes did not role model respectful behaviour expected of an educator," the decision reads. "Hughes failed to create a positive learning environment for his students."

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The teaching regulator suspended Hughes for one day and he will have to complete a Creating a Positive Learning Environment course.

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