Two B.C. teachers have been suspended for the way they went about exposing a fellow teacher's relationship with a former student, which caused the young person "great embarrassment."
Documents from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation reveal Kelsey Levi Knirkholt Stevens and Carissa Lynn Keenan compiled an information package on their fellow teacher's relationship back in July 2020 – including private details on the former student – and that it ended up being "widely distributed in public places as well as over the internet."
As a result, Stevens and Keenan were each suspended 10 days without pay.
All three of the teachers are related to each other, and were living under the same roof and working for the same Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District when Stevens and Keenan learned of the relationship in November 2019, according to a pair of consent resolution agreements that were posted online this week.
The third teacher "subsequently moved out of the home, but left behind some items, including a laptop which had formerly belonged to the district and which still contained some information about the (former student)."
Months later, Stevens and Keenan, with help from another two unnamed family members, used details retrieved from the laptop to create what the documents describe as "a package of information about how to report (the teacher)," and which included "highly personal information" on the former student.
"Twenty copies of the package were made and at least 10 copies were distributed," the consent agreements read. "Keenan personally gave one package to two of her friends."
The documents do not specify how the packages were subsequently spread throughout the community and on the internet, or explain whether Stevens and Keenan reported the teacher to officials themselves.
The consent agreements do not contain the third teacher's name either, or explain what kind of discipline was handed down after the relationship was exposed.
In a previous case covered by CTV News, a teacher who was caught having sex with a former student months after the teenager graduated from high school was fired. The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation withheld that teacher's name as well, which is standard practice to protect the identity of students who were harmed, abused or exploited by a teacher.
Stevens and Keenan were initially suspended for 10 days by the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. After the matter was reviewed by Commissioner Howard L. Kushner, each will also have their teaching certificate suspended for a single day in October.
Both teachers were found to have "failed to model appropriate behaviour of an educator in their disclosure of confidential information of a former district student," according to the consent agreements.
