{"result":"update_story","description":"<p> <\/p> <p><meta charset=\"utf-8\" \/><\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">A British Columbia teacher has been reprimanded and suspended after telling a student that &ldquo;all lives matter&rdquo; in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement.<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">Evgueni Vladimirovitch Melnik, who has been qualified to teach in the province since 2007, also said &ldquo;there are so many labels, who cares&rdquo; in the context of gender.<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">According to a report published this week by the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, he also insisted that &ldquo;racism does not exist&rdquo; but rather that &ldquo;what is described as racism today comes from cultural differences.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\t\t<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1515615292703-0\" class=\"dfp-ad dfp-in-content\" style=\"margin-bottom:15px;\">\n\t\t<script>\n\t\t\tgoogletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(\"div-gpt-ad-1515615292703-0\"); });\n\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t <p dir=\"ltr\">The Coquitlam secondary school teacher made the remarks during a &ldquo;Comparative Civilizations&rdquo; class in May 2021, according to the Commissioner&rsquo;s report.<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\"><img alt=\"&lt;who&gt; Photo credit: KelownaNow &lt;\/who&gt; A file image showing a Black Lives Matter protest in Kelowna.\" src=\"\/files\/files\/images\/blacklivesmatterkelownanow.png\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" \/><\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">He referenced Black Lives Matter and circled the word &ldquo;Animals&rdquo; numerous times, the report states, later telling a student outside class that &ldquo;he believed all lives matter and that the police were not the problem.&rdquo;<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">In a discussion about the influence of the media, Melnik said &quot;the media has you believe that there are more than two genders when using the words &#39;bisexual&#39; and &#39;binary&#39; ... there are so many labels, who cares.&rdquo;<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">According to the Commissioner, one the students &ldquo;is a member of the LGBTQ community and reported being very upset and impacted by this comment.&rdquo;<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">He also &ldquo;told the class that racism does not exist and that a lot of what is described as racism today comes from cultural differences,&rdquo; the report explains.<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">&ldquo;As an example, Melnik talked about historic anti-Asian sentiments and referred to the &lsquo;cultural traits&rsquo; of Asian people who had worked on the railroad in the 19th century in British Columbia and who he said were resented because they worked for less money and followed direction,&rdquo; the Commissioner relayed.<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">Melnik was suspended for eight days without pay on December 8, 2021, and told by his school district to complete a &ldquo;Diversity and Sensitivity Training Program&rdquo; course.<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">The Commissioner began assessing the case on Sept. 12, 2023.<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">In its conclusion, published on Tuesday, the regulator said Melnik&rsquo;s behaviour amounts to professional misconduct and issued him with a reprimand.<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">He was also told to complete a course titled &ldquo;Creating a Positive Learning Environment.&rdquo;<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">Justifying the decision, the Commissioner said &ldquo;the views Melnik shared with his students did not align with the District&#39;s expectation that teachers refrain from engaging in conduct or comment which disparages or discriminates against others.&rdquo;<\/p> <p dir=\"ltr\">It added that the teacher &ldquo;did not foster a safe environment for his students&rdquo; or &ldquo;role-model respect for diversity.&rdquo;<\/p>","title":"BC teacher punished for saying 'all lives matter' and 'police were not the problem'"}