Vancouver Island teacher suspended for pushing students, telling Grade 3/4 class they 'suck'

VICTORIA – A Vancouver Island teacher has been suspended for one week and ordered to complete a course at B.C.'s public safety training institute after having inappropriate physical contact with young students and being verbally aggressive.

Over two days in January 2016, Jason Hop Wo was teaching a Grade 3/4 class in the Cowichan Valley when he "frequently yelled and belittled students in the class," called a student a "fool," used the words "panty face," and told his entire class they "suck," according to a consent resolution agreement signed at the end of October and made public this week.

In the same two-day period, Hop Wo hit one student on the head with a piece of paper, threw a student's pencil crayons in the garbage because the student did not change tasks quickly enough and tore a student's artwork in half in front of the child after telling them to "stop whining."

Just three weeks prior, Hop Wo was teaching a Grade 4/5 class in the same school district when he "frequently yelled and belittled the students," grabbed a student by the shirt and physically moved them, pushed one student out the door by their wrist, and pushed another student in the hallway because he thought they had been speaking out of turn.

While on a field trip to a theatre during this time, Hop Wo confiscated snacks from two students, telling them snacks weren't allowed inside the theatre, before tucking into a snack himself.

According to the document, he also gave detentions to four students for not following his directions to run around a track while they were actually helping another teacher.

In April 2018, Hop Wo was employed as a primary teacher in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district when he "had inappropriate physical contact with a Grade 2 student," according to the British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher regulation. In that incident, Hop Wo was found to have grabbed with both arms and moved a student who was sitting in their cubbyhole.

Hop Wo was suspended without pay by the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district on July 12, 2018. The following year, he completed an anger management course.

"These incidents of physical contact with students occurred for no apparent reason," Commissioner Howard Kushner wrote.

Hop Wo's suspension occurred from Nov. 3 to Nov. 9. He has also been ordered to complete a course on positive learning environments at the Justice Institute of B.C. by March 31, 2020, or face further discipline.