B.C. teacher disciplined for saying he'd use a student to beat 2 others to death
Campbell River teacher said he 'did not like his job or being around kids'
A Campbell River teacher has been disciplined after commenting that he would like to use a student to "beat two other students to death," according to a decision from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.
The decision, posted online, says that Joshua Laurin was employed as a teacher on call in the Campbell River School District on Vancouver Island in November 2018 when the comments were made.
Laurin was accompanying Grade 8 students on a field trip when students overheard him saying he "did not like his job or being around kids," according to the decision.
He said he would like to use one of the students on the field trip to beat two other students to death and to injure a third one.
He also said he wanted to use one of the students to "whack" two others. The decision said Laurin said he liked to teach Grade 8 because he could give students worksheets and "leave them to it."
After the field trip he said that "if he were going to die the following day, he would want to hurt students as he would not then get into any trouble."
Some students overheard the comments and described them as "weird," but said they thought Laurin was joking.
On Nov. 8, 2018, the district issued a letter of discipline and suspended Laurin from the list of teachers on call from Dec. 3 to Dec. 21 of that year.
He was also required to complete a "Reinforcing Professional Boundaries" course at the Justice Institute of B.C., which he did in March 2019 and was then suspended for one day last month as part of the ruling.
He has been certified as a teacher since September 2013.