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A Coquitlam middle school teacher has been given a one-day suspension for failing to “establish a positive learning environment by using material that was not age-appropriate.”
In a B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation ruling released on Tuesday, it was reported that in June 2018, the teacher (Shane Gordon Ashley Kennedy) assigned a Grade Six class — mostly 11 year olds — a report on “media violence” and instructed them to watch a video called “Impact of Media Violence on Today’s Youth.”
The video is meant for adults and educators only and contains a video montage of assault, sexual content, sexual violence, drugs, drug use, alcohol use and gender stereotyping.
Students were then asked to work in pairs and find an advertisement and analyze it, based on what they had seen in the video. The teacher put no restrictions on the students’ Internet research.
The regulator heard that five parents complained to the teacher and they were told that watching the video was optional. The teacher did not tell the other students that viewing was optional.
According to the regulator, “Students found a number of age-inappropriate advertisements on the Internet when preparing for their projects which included imagery or references to simulated sexual intercourse, oral sex and offensive racial prejudices.”
In Nov. 2018, the Coquitlam School District No. 43 issued the teacher a letter of discipline and suspended them for three days without pay.
The regulator added another three days unpaid suspension when they ruled on the matter on April 7, 2020.
