(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

Years after menacingly imparting a “life lesson” to a child who'd aggravated him, a Langley teacher had his professional licence suspended for a day.

Donald Matthew Tupper was employed as a teacher of social studies, PE and weight training at a Langley school in April 2016, when the Commissioner for Teacher regulation started investigating his conduct. Tupper, the Commissioner learned at that time, had been charged with the assault of a Grade 7 student, according to a Consent Resolution agreement published today, Dec. 1.

The incident happened Feb. 15, 2016 when Tupper was attending a basketball game at a district high school. He didn’t teach at the school and was not at the game in his capacity as a teacher.

While there, however, a Grade 7 student ran afoul of Tupper when he started shouting out football terms, like “touchdown” when the team scored. Or, “no touchdown” when they didn’t.

The student was standing at the doorway and did it four times, which seemingly frustrated Tupper.

He “approached the student aggressively” in the hallway outside the gym, backing them up against the wall.

Tupper was very close to the student and had his hand right in front of the student’s chest when he said, in a raised voice, that the student was rude and disrespectful.

“Tupper was visibly angry,”  according to the agreement.

As this was happening another teacher travelled down the hallway towards them and heard Tupper say, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The other teacher, who didn’t know who Tupper was, was concerned and intervened saying, “I’m a teacher here — can I help”

Tupper told them he was a teacher too, and then said it was “OK” and the student had learned a “life lesson.”

He also said he knew the principal of the school, according to the agreement.

He was charged criminally with assault April 11, 2016 and on Aug. 14, 2017 entered a peace bond under section 810 of the Criminal Code and the criminal charge was then stayed.

The court said he had to be of good behaviour and not be in contact with the student or a student witness to the incident for six months.

He also was suspended with pay pending the outcome of an investigation by the school district on May 2, 2016. In March of 2019, he was suspended for three weeks without pay, ordered to take counselling, transferred to another school and told he would be ineligible to work at his former school or the school where the child worked.

The Commissioner was the last to weigh in and on Nov. 19, 2020 Tupper signed an agreement, admitting professional misconduct for the aforementioned details.

He also lost his licence for a day for failing to control his anger and physically intimidating a student.

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