A SD42 secondary school teacher has received a three day suspension after an incident in 2021 when he hit a student in the abdomen.
According to a report released Tuesday, Oct. 31, by the British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, Randy Peter Faresin was volunteering his time on May 27, 2021, in a metal class, during a Welding Certification Bureau examination for the British Colubia Institute of Technology Metal Fabrication program.
One of the Grade 12 students had a grinder at their workstation that did not have the protective guard on it, so the sharp blade was exposed. Even though the grinder was not in operation, it was not clear if it was plugged in or not. When Faresin learned whose grinder it was he approached the student and “made physical contact with the student’s abdomen with his hand.”
The report says that Faresin then lectured the student loudly on the risks of leaving the grinder’s blade exposed and went on to tell the student that his contact with the student’s stomach was nothing compared to what could have happened if the student had been injured by the blade.
Following the incident the school district issued a discipline letter to Faresin on Dec. 15, 2021, suspending him for five days without pay, which he served immediately. The district also made him attend a mandatory workshop on the topic of boundaries in teaching, and attend a minimum of five counselling sessions.
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Faresin completed the course called Reinforcing Respectful Boundaries through the Justice Institute of B.C. in March, 2022 and the counselling sessions by April 20, 2022.
An investigation was ordered by the commissioner on March 2, 2022, and a consent resolution agreement was proposed to the teacher on Nov. 15 last year, resulting in the three-day suspension which he will serve from Dec. 13 to 15.
The commissioner noted Faresin failed to model appropriate behaviour for an educator and that he showed a lack of understanding of “appropriate professional boundaries” as reasons for what they determined to be an “appropriate” consequence.
