VICTORIA -- A Vancouver Island school vice-principal was fired after forcing male students to show her their underwear in an effort to discover who had left a soiled mess in the boys' washroom.
That's according to a document released Tuesday by the province's teacher regulation commissioner, which details the events that led to the dismissal of a Comox vice-principal last October.
The commissioner found that on June 19, 2018, a soiled pair of underwear was found on the lid of a toilet in the boys' washroom at École Au-coeur-de-l'île and feces was found on the floor.
In an effort to identify who the underwear belonged to, vice-principal Delphine Yvette Andrée Guérineau had the school secretary announce that she would be visiting all Grade 3 to 6 classrooms to check if the boys were wearing underwear.
Guérineau did so, with each male student showing her the waistband of his underwear.
The vice-principal then had all male students in grades 7 to 11 line up in the hallway so she could check if they too were wearing underwear.
Two days later, the school district placed Guérineau on paid leave pending the conclusion of a board investigation. On Oct 1, 2018, the vice-principal was fired for professional misconduct, effective Sept. 17.
The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation found that Guérnineau failed to consider the consequences of her actions, which "had the potential to cause emotional harm to students."
Guérineau agreed to the findings on Sept. 14, 2019.
In 2018, shortly after the event occurred, an online petition in support of Guérineau garnered dozens of signatures calling on the school district to reconsider its decision to fire the vice-principal.
Guérineau has since relocated to Winnipeg.
