B.C. teacher disciplined for failing to seize makeshift weapon from student

A classroom is seen in this undated file photo.

A B.C. teacher who failed to confiscate an item that one student had planned to use to attack another has been reprimanded by the province's professional regulator.

The teacher was working at an independent school during the 2020-21 academic year when the incident took place. The school’s principal reported the conduct to the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation in July 2021.

The names of both the teacher and the school are withheld from the summary of a consent resolution agreement published on the regulator's website Tuesday to “protect the identity of students who were harmed, abused or exploited by the teacher.”

The incident first unfolded within the teacher’s classroom, where one student, named student A in the report, threatened another with a sharp object. The teacher removed the student from the class, but he didn’t take the sharp object that had been left behind, the summary read.

The student returned to class and picked up the makeshift weapon, which was then seized by an education assistant.

During the school’s outdoor break, the student found the classmate they had threatened in class and hit them with an “object” and threatened them once again. The summary does not elaborate on what this second "object" was.

The commissioner concluded the teacher had “failed to provide a safe and positive learning environment for their students,” the summary said.

“The students in question were of a young age and required greater vigilance and supervision,” it continued.

The commissioner took into account the teacher’s knowledge of the student conflict that had occurred earlier in the day, noting that he would “reasonably have been aware of the risk of continued conflict” and the importance of “taking immediate steps to mitigate that risk” by reporting the incident to the school.

“The teacher's response to this incident was insufficient and they did not properly continue to supervise Student A when they returned to the classroom,” the summary read.

The teacher, who has held a professional teaching certificate since 1994, was dismissed from his position in June 2021.

He agreed to complete a course, entitled Creating a Positive Learning Environment, as a consequence for his actions.