South Okanagan teacher reprimanded for being AWOL at the worst time

PENTICTON – An Okanagan-Skaha School District teacher has found herself in hot water after a fire broke out in her school and she wasn’t around to help evacuate her students.

Lori Lea Grant accepted a formal reprimand and admitted to professional misconduct, according to the Commissioner for B.C. Teacher Regulation for the Jan. 19, 2018 incident.

According to a report published by the commissioner, Grant was teaching Planning 10 at an unspecified school in School District 67. But instead of teaching and supervising her students, she took two of them and two more students from the school to drive around town and put up signs for a school musical production.

She didn’t seek or obtain permission to leave the school, to drive students in her car or for the students to be away from school. She also didn’t find any other teachers or adults to supervise while she was away.

They were only gone for half an hour, but that’s when a fire started in the school requiring all students to evacuate. There’s no indication anyone was injured or didn’t evacuate, but no one was there to supervise.

Finally, when the principal began investigating the fire, Grant and all other teachers were asked to identify if they had left their classrooms around the time of the fire, where they went and how long they were gone.

“Grant was not forthright in her response, advising the principal that she was between her classroom and the drama room that she did not see anyone in the hallway around the time of the fire and that all of her students were accounted for," according to the commissioner's report. 

She was issued an immediate letter of discipline and suspended for 10 days from Feb. 12 to 23.

The formal reprimand and reporting of the incident came after a hearing earlier this month.

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