VICTORIA - A former Campbell River substitute teacher who was suspended over violent comments he made about his students is now listed as working in the Prince George School District (SD 57).
On Nov. 6, 2018, substitute teacher Joshua Frederick Roland Laurin was heard making concerning comments about students while on a field trip. The comments — which Laurin admitted to saying in a B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation (BCCTR) consent resolution agreement — included that he did not like his job or being around kids, that he wished to use one student to beat two other students to death and injure a third, and that he wanted to use one of the students to "whack" two others.
Later, he was also heard saying that if he was going to die the next day he would want to hurt students as he would not face any consequences.
Two days after the field trip, the Campbell River School District (SD 72) suspended Laurin from the teachers on call list for three weeks and required him to take a Justice Institute of BC course called, "reinforcing professional boundaries," which he completed in March 2019.
Following his suspension, SD 72 later said that he was no longer employed by the school district in a statement.
In April 2019, the BCCTR reviewed the incident. After speaking with students and conducting an investigation, the commissioner decided to suspend Laurin's teaching certificate for one day. The organization described the suspension as appropriate as the school district had already suspended Laurin for a number of weeks, because he admitted to making the comments and because he had completed the professional boundaries course.
"Laurin failed to appreciate how his comments might be interpreted by students," said the BCCTR in its consent resolution agreement, signed by Laurin on Sept. 6, 2019 in Prince George.
On Wednesday, when CTV News reached out to the Prince George School District about Laurin, an SD57 spokesperson said that they were aware of the circumstances that he was involved in but were unable to speak on the topic.