Sarcastic BC teacher who mocked students resigns after being suspended

A high school teacher in Vancouver was disciplined numerous times after angry outbursts that made students uncomfortable which came to a head when he was forced to take a retraining course and then resigned.

Frank Ian Weniger, who was issued a teaching certificate in 1994, was teaching a Socials 10 class in the fall of 2021 in School District 39 in Vancouver when students had some issues with the way he would act in class, according to a recent decision from the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

Weniger would seem “frustrated, impatient and angry” with students in his class. He would raise his voice at the class and students said they were uncomfortable and anxious.

The commissioner wrote that Weniger would make sarcastic comments and mock students.

He also singled out a student during a discussion about immigration.

“I’m guessing you’re not from here. If you knew how many diseases there were in Canada, would you still have come here?” Weniger said.

Weniger used MS Teams to communicate with students, and there were issues with him reaching out to students in the evening, sometimes as late as 11 p.m. One student reported feeling uncomfortable with the late night exchanges about schoolwork.

After the incidents in the fall of 2021, Weniger was suspended for five days without pay.

A few years later, in the fall of 2024, there were problems in Weniger’s English Language Learner class.

There were similar reports about Weniger making students uncomfortable by raising his voice or laughing at students who didn’t understand the material.

Another incident was over a Valentine’s Day gift Weniger wanted to send a student.

The school had an annual event where students and staff would purchase gifts that would get delivered like candy and a rose. For years, Weniger would anonymously send new students one of these gifts to try to make them feel welcome in his class.

However, in one case Weniger filled out a form to send a gift to a student in his class but the students running the event and their staff sponsor were uncomfortable with the situation and didn’t fill out the order.

He was given a 10-day suspension and ordered to take the Creating a Positive Learning Environment course in July 2024, and then he submitted his resignation at the end of the month.