4 days ago
B.C. teacher suspended 3 weeks for making sexual innuendo, texting student
A B.C. high school teacher was suspended for three weeks as discipline for making a sexual innuendo during class and exchanging text messages with a student, according to the professional regulator.
Eric Joseph Bernard Enreight Blouin entered a consent agreement with the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation on July 21, admitting to the professional misconduct.
During the first incident, according to the agreement, Blouin was teaching French 8 and had the students practising counting to 100.
'As students reached the end of each set of 10 numbers (such as the 20s, 30s), Blouin said to the students 'what's next?' After counting to 69, Blouin asked 'what's next' and then said 'mouthwash,'' the agreement reads.
'Blouin says that this comment was directed to the Education Assistant, but the comment was heard by students in the classroom.'
The school district Blouin worked for, which is not named in the consent agreement, verbally reprimanded him for the comment.
In addition, Blouin exchanged 'personal text messages' with a student starting before the end of the school year and through the summer, according to the regulator. Over the summer, the teacher invited the student to his home twice, serving food and hugging the student at the end of each visit.
Toward the end of the summer, the student asked Blouin to stop contacting them. The decision notes the teacher sent a few more messages to the student in the fall, but there was no further communication after that.
For that misconduct, the district initially suspended Blouin for seven days without pay and ordered him to take the course Maintaining Respectful Professional Boundaries through the Justice Institute of B.C.
In deciding a further three-week suspension was the appropriate discipline for Blouin, the commissioner says it considered that he 'failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with the student, by entering into a personal relationship around the time of graduation when he was still in a position of trust and authority towards the student,' and 'failed to role model appropriate behaviour for students when he made the comment with a sexual innuendo during class.'
