BC teacher with a history of touching female students barred for 1 year

A retired BC teacher with a history of touching students has been barred from applying to become a teacher again for a year.

According to a May 28 BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation decision, John Peter Rocca retired four years ago, but that hasn’t stopped the teaching regulator from taking action against him.

The decision says Rocca taught math at an unnamed Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows secondary school where he took a liking to one of his female students.

In 2018, when the student was in Grade 7 he commented on what she was wearing and how she looked.

“Rocca would give (the) student ‘fist bumps’ and would also sometimes put his hand around (her) waist, or on (her) shoulder,” the decision reads.

Similar behaviour continued into Grade 8 when the teacher would lean against her locker and sometimes put his arm around the student’s shoulders. He also asked her about her personal life.

“Rocca made comments to students that ‘older men are better’ which is ‘why girls like older men’ when reprimanding two male students about their immature behaviour and referred to female students as being ‘small,’ ‘adorable,’ ‘sweet’ and ‘cute,'” the decision reads.

The decision lists more examples of his inappropriate behaviour towards the student over the years.

When she was in Grade 9, Rocca made a joke in front of the class about how if he won the lottery he’d move to Hawaii and start a school and take his favourite students – the only one being her.

In January 2021, when the student was in Grade 9, Rocca hit her thigh with a rolled-up newspaper, making her feel uncomfortable.

Rocca also asked another student, whose father he’d taught, personal questions about their family.

“On multiple occasions” he came up behind the student and put his hand on the student’s shoulders. He once told them, “You should smile more, you have such a nice smile.”

He told another student in the Grade 9 class “You’re like a model,” as he balanced papers on their head. The student said he would get very close when speaking to them.

In May 2021, Rocco, who’d been teaching in BC since 1988, retired.

Over the years he’s been suspended and disciplined for touching female students numerous times.

In 1988, while working for the Langley school district, he was suspended without pay for allegations of improper touching of students and that he’d had used offensive language.

The decision says an investigation was launched but he resigned from the school district so it was never completed. There is no information given in the decision about whether the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school district knew about the allegations when it hired him.

Rocco’s poor record continued and in 1998 he was told not to give rides to female students after basketball practices or games.

In 2001, he was reprimanded for giving his car to an unlicenced student.

“This student took two other students in Rocca’s car and left the school. The student was subsequently involved in a motor vehicle accident which resulted in minor injuries to all three students in the car,” the decision reads.

A couple of years later he was suspended for five days without pay for making unnecessary physical contact with female students. On his return to work, he was told not to touch female students.

There is no information in the decision about why it took the regulator almost four years after it began its investigation to come to a disciplinary decision.

The BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulations found that Rocco had failed to create a positive learning environment and caused physical and emotional harm to students.

The regulator said he had a repeated pattern of similar conduct.

Ultimately, the regulator barred him from applying to become a teacher again for 12 months.