B.C. teacher suspended for racist comments toward Black colleagues, scaring students

Desks are shown in a stock photo of an empty classroom. (Getty Images)

A teacher from Northern B.C. who was fired from his job for making racist comments to his coworkers and scaring his students has had his certificate of qualification suspended for four weeks.

Brent Alexander Daniel entered into a consent agreement with the province's commissioner for teacher regulation earlier this month, admitting to a series of acts of professional misconduct that began in 2021.

In April of that year, Daniel was teaching at a public school in the Peace River South district when he had an altercation with a Grade 8 student during a Phys Ed class. The student, referred to as "Student A" in the agreement, threw a soft ball at Daniel, which hit him in the head. Daniel responded by chasing the student.

"Daniel then physically grabbed the hood of Student A’s sweatshirt with his hand from behind Student A, causing Student A to fall to the ground," the document says, adding that Daniel yelled at the student and accused them of exaggerating their injury.

"As a result of Daniel grabbing Student A’s hood, there was a red mark on Student A’s neck and Student A had pain in one elbow. Student A felt scared and sad as a result of Daniel’s conduct."

That incident resulted in a 10-day suspension and a transfer to another school in the district.

The following year, when Daniel was on a leave of absence from his job with the district, he applied to teach at an independent school run by a First Nation. The commissioner found that he was "dishonest" on his application because he failed to include any information about his employment with the district on his resume.

Once he got the job at the school, the agreement says, there were four separate instances of his making racist comments toward his Black colleagues in the span of a month.

"When a colleague, who was wearing a medical face mask, walked by Daniel in the hallway, Daniel said words to the effect of “I’d better put away my valuables” and when this colleague asked Daniel why, Daniel replied 'a black man wearing a mask,'" was one instance described in the agreement.

"Daniel, who was holding a bottle of vitamins, gestured towards a colleague and said words to the effect of, 'Here, you’ll need these when your HIV gets unbearable,'" was another.

In November of 2022, the school disciplined Daniel by issuing him a written reprimand and putting him on probation for three months.

That same month, the school reported several incidents in which Daniel "acted inappropriately" toward students at the K – 12 school. Those included shouting and screaming at kids, swearing and slamming doors, and one case where kids feared they would be hurt by his actions.

"When some students were hiding from Daniel under some stacked chairs, Daniel yelled at the students to get out and kicked the chairs very hard. The students were afraid the chairs would fall on them," the consent agreement says.

Daniel was fired for cause on Nov. 30, 2022.

In addition to a four-week suspension of Daniel's teaching certificate he is required to complete a course on "Creating a Positive Learning Environment." Failure to do so, the agreement notes, could lead to another suspension of his credentials.