VANCOUVER -- A former Mission school principal has been banned from teaching for 15 years after he was caught in a Creep Catchers sting — a punishment B.C.’s Teacher Regulation Branch says could keep him away from schools for life.

Jason Alan Obert was found guilty of of conduct unbecoming of a teacher after he admitted to exchanging “sexualized texts” in 2016 with people he believed were two girls aged 15 and 14, named “Sara” and “Hannah.”

“The panel acknowledges that the practical effect of a 15-year ban in this case is that it is extremely unlikely the respondent will ever be able to qualify to teach again,” said the Branch in its decision.

Obert was a principal at Windebank Secondary School in Mission in 2016. Using the pseudonym “James 33,” he visited a website called Skout and texted with someone who he believed was a 15-year-old for over a month, the decision says.

“In the text exchanges, the respondent asked these minor girls if they ‘smoked weed’ and offered to buy them alcohol,” the decision says.

Obert testified that he was just doing research on Creep Catchers and intended to write a fictional or non-fictional piece about them.

The girls were portrayed by Chelsea Bullon, who had formed the Fraser Valley chapter of Creep Catchers. She has since left to form her own group, called the “Block Guardians” — though it hasn’t been active for a while.

Bullon said Obert represented himself, and put to her his argument that he was just researching a documentary.

“I was blown away. He was nervous, he was sweating, he ran away — why would you do those things if you were coming to interview me?” she told CTV News.

It was a shock, Bullon said, to post the video of the “catch” and find out from people online who identified him that he was a principal.

“My stomach dropped. I thought, ‘Oh no, he’s so close to children,’” she said.

The branch found Obert had no previous misconduct, and that through his exposure in public he had already suffered significant consequences.

His teaching certificate was suspended in October 2016, and he was terminated from the Mission School District in November 2016.

“The respondent’s evidence at the findings hearing included that he had difficulty finding steady employment since the fall of 2016,” the decision says.