Brent Alexander Daniel's teaching certificate has also been suspended for four weeks.
Brent Alexander Daniel also has has his teaching certificate suspended for four weeks.
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According to a consent resolution agreement signed last month in Prince George, Daniel had just started working at the First Nations-operated K-12 school last fall when he made several racially-charged comments towards Black colleagues.
In one instance, Daniel said “I’d better put away my valuables” after a colleague wearing a medical face mask walked by him in the hallway. When asked why, Daniel said “a black man wearing a mask.”
In another incident, Daniel was holding a bottle of vitamins when he gestured towards another teacher and said: “Here, you’ll need these when your HIV gets unbearable.”
Daniel also made a joke about an “Oreo” after standing between two teachers who are Black, and said words to the effect of “you can take the Haitian out of Haiti, but you can’t take Haiti out of the Haitian” when he saw a Black teacher carrying items from the office.
The name and location of the school were not disclosed in the agreement.
On Nov. 16, the school issued a warning letter to Daniel and placed him on probation for three months.
Daniel also exhibited troubling behaviour that month, detailed the agreement, including yelling at a student asked to attend the after-school club; displaying what another teacher described as an “aggressive” interaction with two students at the gym after Daniel ran a hockey net over the toes of a student; and using obscenities in the presence of students after he was told a truck used by staff of the school was not available for him to drive home.
The school terminated his employment on Nov. 30.
The school also said Daniel submitted a “dishonest” job application when he applied for the job because he omitted his teaching stint at the Peace River South school district, which started in 2018 and ended in disgrace in May 2021, just two or three months before he applied to teach at the First Nations school.
While at the Peace River South public school, Daniel, a high school teacher, chased a Grade 8 student who had thrown a soft bouncy ball at him, hitting him in the head.
Daniel chased after the student and pretended to throw the ball at them. He also grabbed the student’s sweatshirt, causing the student to fall, said the agreement. When the student on the ground, Daniel made comments that the student wasn’t actually hurt and was just “milking it.”
The student suffered a red mark on the neck and pain in one elbow and felt “scared and sad” as a result of the incident.
The Peace River South school district issued Daniel a letter of discipline and a 10-day suspension without pay, which Daniel served from May 17 to 31, 2021. He was also transferred to a different school in the district and required to complete anger management and conflict resolution courses.
He was on a leave of absence when he applied for a position at the independent school.
Regarding Daniel’s actions at the independent school, the B.C. commissioner for teacher regulation said Daniel “failed to model appropriate behaviour” expected of an educator and that his actions jeopardized the physical and emotional safety of students, particularly students at the Independent school.
The commissioner issued a four-week suspension of Daniel’s teaching degree effective February. He is also required to complete a course called Creating a Positive Learning Environment through the Justice Institute of B.C.
chchan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/cherylchan
