A BC teacher has been reprimanded by the provincial commissioner for “inappropriate conduct” that put students’ emotional well-being at risk.
A consent agreement between the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation and Brigitte Lépine was published on Tuesday.
A summary of the agreement said the issues happened while Lépine was employed as a teacher on call by School District 43 in Coquitlam in September 2021.
According to the summary, Lépine was teaching a Grade 7 late French immersion class.
The agreement noted that the students in the class had only began learning French in Grade 6.
(1).jpg)
During one class, the students reportedly laughed when Lépine mispronounced a student’s “unusual” name. They were then shown a presentation on racism and afterwards Lépine told the students they were racist for laughing at her.
“Throughout the day, Lépine appeared angry and annoyed, and frequently raised her voice,” the summary said
“Some students reported feeling badly, as they felt that they had done something wrong. One student reported feeling scared, another reported feeling anxious and a third reported feeling nervous.”
When a student asked a question, the teacher reportedly told the students, in French, “you have to use your brains” and that the students were “supposed to make my life easier.”
The teacher also reportedly pushed a student's hands down and told them to "pay attention” during a presentation, denied a student’s request to refill their water bottle because the student had not been “behaving very nicely” and confiscated some students’ phones and laptops.
The summary said on three occasions, the teacher reportedly did not ask the students to surrender their electronics but rather “she grabbed their phones or laptops out of their hands without saying anything.”
On Nov. 16, 2021, the school district issued Lépine a letter of discipline and suspended her without pay for two days. She was also ordered to complete a course on creating a positive learning environment in March 2022, which she did.
The district also directed her to interact with students and staff in a civil and professional manner, set consistent classroom expectations and use constructive, age-appropriate methods to hold students accountable, refrain from using physical contact to redirect students and seek help from school administrators if she became frustrated.
This was not the first time the school district disciplined Lépine.
She was suspended for one day without pay in October 2019 for “having inappropriate verbal and physical interactions with students.”
In June 202, she entered into a consent resolution agreement with the provincial commissioner for that incident and ordered to do a course on creating a positive learning environment by April 2021. She completed the course in August 2020.
In January 2022, an investigation was launched by the commissioner and in April 202, a second consent resolution agreement was proposed.
Under the latest agreement, she will have to finish a course in communicating in conflict by April 30, 2025. She can request an extension in writing but if she does not complete the course, she could have her teaching certificate suspended, the commissioner said.
The commissioner said Lépine has engaged in a repeated pattern of inappropriate behaviour, has not improved despite taking remedial courses, has employed a “punitive and unprofessional approach,” and has put the emotional well-being of students at risk.
