The B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch has disciplined a former Burnaby teacher for using inappropriate force on students and failing to follow school procedures.
According to a consent resolution agreement released by the branch on Oct. 17, Inman Elementary teacher Fiona Elizabeth Walsh, who still holds a teaching certificate,“forcibly moved” a kindergarten student across a carpeted area which resulted in “bruising and abrasions” consistent with rug burn.
Walsh also put a student in a chair by herself, after the girl became upset during a presentation of the poem In Flander’s Fields, during a Remembrance Day assembly. In another example, Walsh was cited for not following school procedures, when she dismissed her students for the day during an unexpected fire drill. Walsh also started lunch at 11:30 a.m. for her class, even though the rest of the school’s break was at noon, and she continued to do so, even after the principal told her not to.
According to the branch, Walsh had “unreasonable” and “unnecessary” rules for lunch: chairs had to be pushed in so close that students’ chests touched the table, and the kids had to eat the “main” part of their lunch before they were allowed to eat other items, like fruit and vegetables.
“As a result, some students felt coerced into eating more food than they wished,” the agreement stated.
But the unreasonable and unnecessary instructions weren’t limited to students. According to the branch, Walsh also told parents on what they could and couldn’t feed their kids while at school.
Walsh instructed parents to pack a “main” dish, either a sandwich or leftovers, and they were not to include cookies or other items. Walsh even sent a note, attached to a yogurt drink container, home to one parent. The note read: “This container is garbage. We don’t bring them to school.”
Walsh also insisted that students going home at the end of the day had to be wearing all their items of clothing and were not allowed to carry anything while leaving the classroom, and students were sometimes dismissed late in order to comply with her rule.
Two parents asked that their kids be removed from Walsh’s class because of “her insensitive and inappropriate interactions,” according to the branch.
On Apr. 24, 2012, the Burnaby school district suspended Walsh without pay for 10 days and then placed her on-call but didn’t assign her to any post. The district then transferred her to another elementary school for the 2012/13 year, and recommended she teach Grade 2 or higher. According to the district’s communications manager Jodie Wilson, Walsh is no longer teaching in the Burnaby school district as she retired in June 2013.
The B.C. Education Ministry’s Teacher Regulation Branch, which replaced the self-regulating B.C. College of Teachers, is the provincial body that handles teacher certification and discipline for misconduct. Under the old system, teachers disciplined for misconduct were listed in the college’s annual report, but the new branch is offering consent resolution agreements, where teachers can agree in writing to the facts of their case and avoid facing a hearing. In Walsh’s case, she agreed to the facts outlined in the agreement.
The agreements are regularly posted online at www.bcteacherregulation.ca.
