B.C. teacher caught with weed, scales and cash in 2012 gets one-month suspension

A lower mainland high school teacher who was fired after police found 45 grams of cannabis, electronic scales and $1,400 of cash in his BMW, is back on the job but has had his teaching certificate suspended for one month.

Eugenio Alfonso Bahamonde was suspended without pay by School District No. 36 in Surrey in December 2012 and eventually fired from his job as an on-call teacher for the school board in June 2018. This followed an incident where he was pulled over by police driving his BMW home from working at a Surrey school in November 2012.

Police were watching Bahamonde that day in 2012. They saw him get in his BMW roughly 40 minutes after school ended. They also saw another adult male get into his car, then exit a few minutes later. When they arrested him they discovered 45.6 grams of marijuana, $1,440 in cash bundled in an elastic band, electronic scales, rolling papers and a bag of zip-loc bags in a gym bag in Bahamonde's car.

He was arrested and charged for possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking but he was acquitted in June 2015 when a trial judge ruled his arrest was unlawful and evidence seized from his vehicle after his arrest was not admissible. The Crown appealed but it was dismissed in December 2016.

According to a B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation decision, Bahamonde admits he was in unlawful possession of the cannabis and said it was for medical purposes, although Bahamonde knew he did not have the authorization to possess medical marijuana.

He was fired in 2018 and the commissioner considered the matter again in June, opting to allow him to continue to teaching after he served a one-month suspension. 

The decision says the suspension is an "appropriate consequence" considering the factors.

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