BC teacher who let students swim across lake gets reprimanded

A BC school teacher who let students swim almost half a kilometre across a lake has been issued a public reprimand.

According to a Jan. 27 BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation decision, the students swam 450 metres across the lake while on a field trip, and teacher Joel Nathan Dyck didn’t stop them from leaving the designated swimming area.

The decision said the students were too tired to swim back, so they had to walk back barefoot on a trail beside a highway at dusk.

“Dyck was responsible for student safety during the Field Trip and allowed students to participate in potentially dangerous activities without appropriate supervision or parental knowledge or permission,” the BC Commissioner said in the decision.

The decision said the high school teacher took 21 students from Grades 10, 11 and 12 on a three-day school field trip to Victoria and Nanaimo in May 2023.

“During the Field Trip, students swam in a pool, hot tub and lake. Dyck allowed the students to swim. No adult, including Dyck, directly supervised the students while they were in the hot tub. No adult, including Dyck, maintained continuous observation of the students in the pool or lake,” the decision reads. “There was also never a lifeguard present while the students were swimming.”

During the trip five students decided to swim out of the designated swimming area and across the lake to a beach on the other side. The distance was roughly 450 metres and at least two students were too tired to swim back, so they all walked barefoot.

“While Dyck could see the students swimming in the lake, he did not prevent the students from leaving the designated swimming area, and was not in a position to take any action if one of the students had difficulty outside the designated swimming area,” the regulator said.

Dyck, who’s been teaching since 2011, also didn’t tell the parents that the students might be swimming or have parental permission to do so.

“Dyck also did not take any measures to ensure that a person with lifesaving certification was present while the students were swimming on the field trip,” the decision said.

Following the trip, the Vancouver Island North school district suspended Dyck for one day.

The teaching regulator then issued a public reprimand, and Dyck signed a consent agreement admitting to his conduct.

The decision didn’t say which high school Dyck taught at, but the consent agreement was signed in Port Hardy.