An unnamed teacher has been banned from the classroom for life after being convicted of sexual exploitation of a student.
The unnamed school district reported the teacher to the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation after the teacher in May 2018 was criminally charged with sexual exploitation of a young person by a person in a position of trust or authority, and sexual assault.
In February 2019, the teacher pleaded guilty to a number of charges including sexual exploitation and was sentenced in February 2020.
The teacher resigned a month later.
That July, the commissioner began an investigation after learning the teacher had breached bail conditions.
The teacher agreed the behaviour was professional misconduct.
The commissioner’s office said in a decision released Sept. 8 that a lifetime teaching ban was needed because the teacher engaged in criminal misconduct involving serious sexual exploitation of a vulnerable student, there was a pattern of boundary violations and the teacher attempted to mislead and obstruct the district’s investigation.
While there was no identification of the teacher or school district in the discipline decision, former Kelowna teacher Bradley Furman was sentenced to 38 months in jail Feb. 11 on charges related to a sexual encounter he had with a student at Mount Boucherie Secondary School.
Those charges included sexual exploitation, multiple breaches of conditions and attempting to obstruct justice.
During sentencing, psychologist Dr. Matthew Burnett said that the 30-year-old Furman appeared to have had difficulties forming relationships with other adults, feeling more comfortable with adolescents, Castanet reported.
Burnett said Furman showed “poor teacher-student boundaries.” He said Furman appeared not to understand the gravity of the charges he faced.
“He sort of felt the imposed [bail] sanctions were overly onerous, too restrictive ... it was sort of a less developed understanding of consequence and result.”
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