A former Vavenby Elementary School teacher recently had his teaching certificate cancelled after multiple incidents involving inappropriate messages he sent to female students.
On Jan. 24, Bryan Edmund Cederholm entered into a consent resolution agreement with the British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation in which he agreed his behaviour was equal to professional misconduct and went against the Standards of Education, Competence and Professional Conduct of Educators in British Columbia.
Cederholm also agreed he’d never apply for a certificate of qualification again in the future.
According to a disciplinary decision posted online this week on the Teacher Regulation Branch website, the first incident took place in February, 2017 when Cederholm exchanged inappropriate messages with a 12-year-old female student he’d previously taught.
On Feb. 24, he receieved a letter of reprimand and was suspended for two days without pay. Then on March 8, 2017, the school district reported him to the commissioner under section 16 of the School Act.
In January and February, 2017, Cederholm also exchanged inappropriate messages with a 14-year-old female student who he’d previously taught, and during these exchanges, he sent her a picture he’d taken of some of his current elementary school students.
Later that February, Cederholm used Instagram to connect with a second 14-year-old student he’d taught before. This student blocked him from contacting her.
On April 4, 2017, the school district made another report to the commissioner about Cederholm under section 16 of the School Act, and on March 16, 2017, the district fired him.
More complaints came in after Cederholm was fired, when on April 8, 2017 the school district told the commissioner it received information from the parent of a student about exchanges Cederholm had with their daughter.
During the 2016/17 school year, over the course of roughly one week, Cederholm sent inappropriate messages to a 16-year-old female student. He also showed this student text messages he’d exchanged with another person about her. The 16-year-old felt so uneasy she also blocked Cederholm from contacting her on social media.
The commissioner began an investigation into the allegations under section 47 (1)(b) of the Teachers Act.
On Jan. 18, 2018, the district once again told the commissioner it received a report, this time from a 13-year-old former female student, alleging he’d communicated with her inappropriately.
Between October, 2016 and January, 2017, Cederholm exchanged messages with her on different social media platforms. Also in January, 2017, Cederholm sent the student inappropriate messages.
The Commissioner initiated another investigation into these allegations under section 47(1)(b) of the Teachers Act.
When deciding that firing Cederholm and banning him from reapplying were appropriate consequences, the commissioner considered the facts that he engaged in inappropriate electronic communication with adolescent female students, used several contact points with them, including some outside the classroom, which were used to blur boundaries, engaged in this conduct multiple times and did so after being told in 2016 that he should not have this kind of contact with students.