A BC teacher has been temporarily suspended for making demeaning comments to an Indigenous student and making students feel uncomfortable during a fitness class.
A consent resolution agreement between Todd Erin Graham and the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation was published online earlier this week and outlined the two separate matters.
The school and district Graham worked for are not identified in order to protect the identity of the students.
The first set of issues happened during the 2022/2023 school year.
The commissioner wrote that Graham singled out student A, a “diverse learner,” in front of classmates and described the student using an “unflattering term."
During the same school year, Graham singled out an Indigenous student in front of classmates in “a manner that was demeaning to student B specifically and to Indigenous people generally.”
In February 2024, the school district issued Graham a letter of discipline and ordered him to complete a course on reconciliation and cultural safety training, which he completed that month.
Later that year, in August, the district made a report to the Commissioner regarding issues that happened between September and December 2022 when Graham was teaching a fitness and conditioning class.
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During the class, Graham separated the girls from the boys for a meeting, in which he reportedly told the girls he was “not a pedophile” but that he might have to “grab them” to show them proper form or spot them.
“Graham then told them that he had no attraction to them as he was 52 and they were 15,” the Commissioner wrote. “The students reported feeling uncomfortable following this meeting."
The Commissioner wrote that Graham periodically touched students, including a group of Grade 11 female students, to help them with their form or identify the working muscle groups, including a student’s chest while bench pressing, a student's hips while squatting and complimenting another student’s legs while on the leg press machine.
All the students reported feeling uncomfortable.
The school district issued Graham a letter of discipline and ordered him to attend a course on boundaries.
The Commissioner ordered an investigation in May 2024 and later added the second matter to the investigation in October 2024.
Once the investigation was finished, the consent resolution was prepared and included a one-day suspension and an order to to finish a course on reinforcing professional boundaries.
When preparing the agreement, the Commissioner said they considered Graham’s failure to create a positive learning environment that respected appropriate boundaries.
The Commissioner also noted how his conduct “adversely impacted” students and how his comments to the Indigenous student did not contribute to “truth, reconciliation and healing.”
