A former Comox vice-principal, who was fired last year, has been reprimanded after she forced male students to show her their underwear to prove they had not left feces in the boys’ washroom.
Information about the incident was part of the discipline outcome released Tuesday by the province’s teacher regulation commissioner.
According to the consent resolution agreement, on June 19, 2018, a soiled pair of boys’ underwear was found on the lid of the toilet in the boys’ bathroom, with feces on the floor. Since the principal was not at École Au-coeur-de-l’île at the time, Delphine Yvette Andrée Guérineau addressed the issue.
Guérineau then had the school’s secretary announce over the PA system that she would be visiting the classrooms of grades 3-6 to check if the boys were wearing underwear. The report says Guérineau did go to each classroom and had the male students show her the waistbands of their underwear.
All male students in grades 7-11 line up in the hallway so she could check if they were wearing underwear by having them show them the waistbands of their underwear.
Two days later, School District No 93 placed Guérineau on paid leave, pending the conclusion of the district’s investigation. Guérineau was fired on Oct. 1, 2018, effective Sept. 17, 2018.
The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation has now issued a reprimand. The commissioner found Guérineau failed to give proper consideration to the consequences of her actions, her actions had the potential to cause emotional harm to students and she failed to role model appropriate behaviour for an administrator. The commissioner, Howard L. Kushner, wrote she acknowledged that her reaction was inappropriate.
Guérineau signed the agreement on Sept. 14, 2019.
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