A Burnaby high school teacher will serve a one-day suspension after admitting to “aggressively” throwing a dumbbell at a student.
Documents posted to the B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch database Tuesday (Jan. 26) describe how Lawrence Paul Ryan was involved in the incident during a P.E. class on Feb. 13, 2020. According to the documents, Ryan saw a Grade 12 student try to throw a dumbbell to another student, but the weight fell on the ground instead. Ryan then walked up to the student, and berated him, in what the student perceived to be an angry way, in front of four P.E. classes.
“What is stupider, throwing a dumbbell across the gym or trying to catch it?” he said, according to the documents.
When the student tried to explain that they had dropped the dumbbell by accident, documents show that Ryan picked up the dumbbell and “threw it aggressively, underhand, at the student.” He asked “do you think this is an accident?” as he threw it.
Documents state Ryan threw the dumbbell at the student from about three feet away and that it would have hit the student in the face if they didn’t catch it.
Ryan was issued a letter of discipline on March 3, 2020, and had to apologize to the student, their family and the rest of the students in the four P.E. classes present during the incident.
The commissioner of the B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch issued Ryan a one-day suspension, to be served on Feb. 12 of this year, because Ryan “failed to model appropriate behaviour expected of an educator.”
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