BC teacher who made 1,000 calls to student loses licence

A BC teacher who made more than 1,000 phone calls to a student has been barred from teaching for 15 years.

According to a Sept. 16 BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation decision, the unnamed high school teacher would talk on the phone with the student for more than an hour and a half on multiple occasions.

The teaching regulator said the teacher began messaging the student with “increasingly personal and intimate messages” using the school’s MS Team’s platform. In three weeks they shared more than 190 messages largely between 8 p.m. and midnight.

“These messages included giving each other compliments about their physical appearance and about having a slow dance together,” the decision read.

The teacher then got hold of the student’s cell phone number and over the next 16 months, they made more than 1,000 calls.

“The teacher misused their position of power and trust to exploit a student for the teacher’s own personal advantage,” the regulator said. “The teacher’s conduct was a fundamental breach of a teacher’s duty to students and to the public.”

The decision said the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation is withholding the teacher’s name to protect the identity of the student.

The teacher has been teaching since 2012, but the decision didn’t specify where in the province they taught.

When the school district questioned the teacher, he denied having contact with the student.

“The Teacher was dishonest and did not maintain the integrity, credibility and reputation of the profession,” the regulator said.

He signed a consent agreement with the regulator admitting to his behaviour and agreed not to apply to become a teacher for 15 years.