BC teacher caught vaping in school bathroom

While it’s ordinarily been the students who sneak off to the bathroom to vape, a BC teacher who did just that has found herself with more than a lunchtime detention.

According to an Oct. 7 BC Commissioner for Teacher Education decision, elementary school teacher Stephanie Kastoris used the bathroom attached to her classroom to vape on numerous occasions.

The decision says she also vaped in two staff washrooms in the school.

“On multiple occasions, Kastoris used the bathroom attached to her classroom in order to vape. After she did so, there was a lingering scent in the air in both the bathroom and the classroom, which her students noticed,” the decision reads. “While Kastoris did not vape in front of her students, on one occasion, she was vaping when they were lining up outside the washroom door, waiting to go outside.”

The vaping occurred while Kastoris was teaching a combined Kindergarten and Grade 1 class in September 2024 at an unnamed school.

The decision doesn’t say how the teacher was caught vaping, but the School District No. 43, Coquitlam, suspended her for three days without pay.

The school district then forwarded the file to the provincial teachers’ regulator.

“Kastoris did not role model appropriate behaviour,” the regulator says in the decision. “Kastoris put student safety at risk.”

The elementary teacher signed a consent agreement admitting to her behaviour and accepted a public reprimand.

The decision notes that she was fully cooperative with the school district’s investigation and admitted to her conduct.