VANCOUVER -- A former school librarian on Vancouver Island who was fired in 2019 after purchasing books depicting nudity, sex acts and drug use for the school library's collection has been reprimanded by B.C.'s Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

Matthew Norman Lettington was a teacher-librarian at a secondary school in the Nanaimo School District from September 2015 to December 2019, according to a consent resolution agreement posted on the regulator's website on April 20.

The agreement stems from the incidents that led to Lettington's dismissal, which involved two books he purchased for the school's collection.

The first was a graphic novel called "My New York Diary," which Lettington ordered for the school in September 2016, according to the agreement. In January 2018, a parent contacted the school to complain about the book, which contains "images of nudity, sexual acts, drug use and mature language."

According to the consent resolution agreement, Lettington met with the school's principal and agreed that the book was not suitable for all students at the school. The book was ultimately removed from the library's collection.

In November 2017, Lettington purchased another graphic novel, "La lesbienne invisible," which the agreement says also contains images of nudity, sexual acts and drug use.

"When the book arrived at the school, Lettington identified it as a book that may not be suitable for the school library, but instead of discarding it immediately, he added it to a pile of books which he intended to review later for suitability," the agreement reads. "Lettington did not begin his review of this book until May 2019."

That month, on a day when Lettington was out sick, a colleague inadvertently put the book out on the school library's shelves. A few days later, Lettington checked out the book to a Grade 8 student, whose parent complained.

The consent resolution agreement indicates that these offences were not the first instances of professional misconduct in Lettington's career.

In March 2009, the school district suspended him for 20 days for inappropriate interactions and communications with students.

That discipline from the district eventually led to a different consent resolution agreement with the regulator, in which Lettington agreed to a 30-day suspension of his teaching certificate.

Then, in June 2016, the district suspended him for five days without pay and directed him to "avoid any and all behaviour which could be perceived as 'grooming' behaviour."

He was also instructed not to communicate with students through any technology other than his district email address, not to use an alias to communicate with students, not to take any photographs of students, and not to sponsor or participate in any school clubs, teams or other extracurricular activities.

The 2016 incident led to another consent resolution agreement, in which Lettington agreed to a reprimand from the regulator for "making inappropriate comments to students and engaging in non-sexual boundary violations."

The latest agreement includes another reprimand for Lettington, who - by signing it - agrees that the facts stated within it are true and that his handling of the two books constitutes professional misconduct.

The full consent resolution agreement has been published on the B.C. Commission for Teacher Regulation website.