B.C. teacher suspended after telling exchange student to 'go back to working on rice farms'

VANCOUVER -- A former Vancouver high school teacher has had his teaching certificate suspended for three days over a series of inappropriate incidents that included telling an exchange student to "go back to working on rice farms."

Klaus Hardy Breslauer was teaching Science 9, Science 10 and Physics 11 for an undisclosed school in the city when he was reported for numerous questionable interactions with students that took place during the 2017-18 school year.

In one incident, he told some Grade 10 students he suspected of cheating on a test that they "each deserved to encounter a cheater and get a sexually transmitted disease," according to a disciplinary decision from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation that was posted online this week.

He also asked if a Japanese student answered a question wrong because the teenager had been "watching too much hentai," a reference to animated pornography, and made an apparent reference to masturbation during an experiment that involved black rods.

"Breslauer commented that boys are especially gifted at rubbing rods and that he himself had years of experience doing so," the decision reads.

The commissioner found Breslauer had "frequently discussed his personal life during class time, which included making comments to the students about his family, his previous job as a bouncer, gambling, his travels, paranormal activity and his sex life."

In addition, students reported seeing a picture the teacher posted to his personal Facebook page that seemingly depicted Breslauer and his wife naked behind a newspaper.

Breslauer was found to be storing about 700 memes on a school-issued computer, including many that were "homophobic, transphobic, sexist and racist." The commissioner said Breslauer made some of the memes himself, and that he had shared some with his students.

Breslauer also disparaged a local college as "loser Langara," and told students they would wind up there because of their grades while making an L-shape with his fingers.

The teacher had been disciplined several times before for alleged threatening, discriminatory and otherwise inappropriate comments to students, and for one incident when he was accused of using physical force.

Following the complaints in the 2017-18 school year, he resigned from the Vancouver school district.

The subsequent review conducted by the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation determined Breslauer should also have his teaching certificate suspended for three days.