A Campbell River substitute teacher had his teaching certificate suspended for one day after concerning comments that were made during a Grade 8 field trip.
He was also suspended from the Campbell River School District’s teacher-on call list for three weeks.
According to a B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation (BCCTR) consent resolution agreement, students overheard substitute teacher Joshua Laurin making the comments during a field trip on Nov. 6, 2018. The agreement was released on Nov. 12, 2019,
The comments included Lauring saying he would like to use one of the students on the field trip to beat two other students to death and injure a third one, and that he wanted to use one of the students to “whack” two others.
Laurin was also heard saying he did not like his job or being around kids and that he liked Grade 8 because he could leave students with worksheets.
The agreement also states after the field trip, when students were back in their classroom, Laurin said that if he was going to die the following day, he would want to hurt students as he would not get in trouble.
According to the agreement, some students who heard the comments described them as “weird” and reported feeling shocked, although they thought Laurin was joking.
The Campbell River School District (SD 72) issued Laurin a letter of discipline two days after the field trip and suspended him from the teacher-on-call list from Dec. 3 to Dec. 21, 2018. The district also required Laurin to complete the “Reinforcing Professional Boundaries Course” offered by the Justice Institute of B.C. Laurin finished the course in March 2019.
On April 5, 2019, the commissioner considered the incident and proposed a consent resolution agreement. In the agreement, Laurin admitted to making the comments and agreed to a one-day suspension of his teacher’s certificate, occurring on Oct. 24, 2019.
Before issuing the suspension, the commissioner considered that Laurin had completed the justice institute course, the district had a suspended Laurin from the teacher-on-call list for three weeks and Laurin had failed to “appreciate how his comments might be interpreted by other students.”
Read the consent resolution agreement below:
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