A B.C. teacher has been suspended for four weeks, after a disciplinary investigation found he made repeated racist remarks to coworkers and frightened some students.
The first issue with Brent Daniel arose in 2021 while he was working at a public secondary school in the Peace River South school district.
One of his Grade 8 students said Daniel grabbed them by the hood of their sweatshirt after they threw a soft bouncy ball at his head. The student said they fell to the ground and had a red mark around their neck, but that Daniel told them they weren’t actually hurt and were just “milking it.”
The school district suspended Daniel for 10 days without pay and ordered him to take courses on managing anger and resolving conflict.
While on a leave of absence from the district, Daniel went on to apply to an independent K-12 school operated by a First Nation at the start of the 2022 school year. He omitted his work experience with the district in that application, and the independent school was unaware of Daniel’s disciplinary history when it hired him.
In October and November, Daniel made numerous racist comments to Black teachers at that school. Black Press Media has chosen not to include the specific details of those remarks.
The school placed Daniel on a three-month probation, but different issues continued.
On at least four occasions Daniel had aggressive encounters with students. In one instance he yelled at a student when they asked to attend an after school club. In another, Daniel yelled at several students during gym class. He also became upset and slammed a classroom door and swore when he was told he couldn’t use a school truck to drive home. Lastly, Daniel kicked some stacked chairs that students were hiding from him under and yelled at them.
All of this was enough to get him fired on Nov. 30.
In addition, the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation investigated Daniel’s behaviour and found it worthy of a four-week teaching certificate suspension. In a consent agreement published Tuesday (Jan. 31), Daniel also agreed to taking a course on positive learning environments.
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