B.C. teacher suspended for pushing student from classroom

A Vancouver Island woodshop teacher lost his teaching certificate for one day and was directed to complete a course on creating a positive learning environment after he pushed a Grade 7 student out of his classroom. (iStock)

A Vancouver Island schoolteacher lost his teaching certificate for one day and was directed to complete a course on creating a positive learning environment after he pushed a Grade 7 student out of his classroom.

Blair Howard Murray Hughes was teaching a woodshop class in the Sooke School District on Dec. 14, 2020.

Near the end of the class, some of his students were mingling in the hallway with students from an adjacent home economics class.

"While Hughes had a rule requiring students in the woodshop class to remain inside until the class bell had rung and the class was dismissed, some students began making their way outside," according to a recently published consent resolution agreement from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

"Hughes followed those students who had gone outside and, with a loud voice, told his students to return to the woodshop."

One of the students told Hughes that a substitute teacher had told them to come outside and join the other students.

Hughes and the student had "an increasingly heated discussion about when students could leave the woodshop," according to the agreement.

When the student argued with Hughes, he responded, "Stop being disrespectful. I'm not your mom and dad," the agreement said.

The teacher put his hand on the student's shoulder to remove him from the classroom. The student raised his arm and Hughes held onto his wrist in an effort to direct him into the hallway and to the principal's office.

The student told Hughes to stop touching him. Hughes then pushed the student out the door.

The teacher was issued a letter of discipline from the school district, which also suspended him without pay for two days. He served the suspension on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13.

The province's commissioner for teacher regulation ordered an investigation into the incident and proposed a consent resolution agreement in November 2022.

Under the resolution signed on March 20, Hughes agreed to a one-day suspension of his teaching certificate to be served on April 5.

He was also directed to complete a course on creating a positive learning environment through the Justice Institute of British Columbia by March 31 of next year.