'Lifetime ban' for former B.C. teacher convicted in historic sex assault case involving minors

Lockers in a school hallway. (Shutterstock)

Warning: Disturbing content.

A former elementary school teacher convicted of several sex crimes involving minors has agreed he will never again teach in British Columbia's K-12 system.

Anoop Singh Klair was convicted of four counts of sexual interference, three counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual assault with a weapon in May of last year. He was sentenced in the fall to 3.5 years' incarceration, after four counts were conditionally stayed.

The criminal offences involved four minors and occurred before Klair worked as a teacher, documents say.

According to the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, Klair was issued a teaching certificate in 2007, and worked in B.C. schools until 2018.

At that time, he was charged with the historical criminal offences and resigned from the school district he'd been employed by. The BCCTR doesn't name that district in documents dated in July and posted on Tuesday.

Klair still held his certificate, but signed an undertaking not to teach in any role in 2018, while his case was before the courts.

When that process wrapped up, Klair's case came to the BCCTR for a decision on his future as a teacher in B.C.

In a consent resolution agreement reached with Klair last month, the BCCTR said Klair agreed to cancel his teaching certificate.

He's also agreed "that he will never apply for, and understands the Director of Certification will never issue to him, a certificate of qualification, an independent school teaching certificate or any other authorization to teach in the kindergarten to Grade 12 education system," the commissioner wrote.

Calling it a "lifetime ban," the commissioner said the factors taken under consideration included that "Klair engaged in repeated victimization of minors over an extended period of time."