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Coquitlam teacher suspended for 'inappropriate contact' of young students through social media

Elementary school teacher disciplined for texting, Instagram messaging former Grade 5 students and disclosing sensitive information about another student
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A Coquitlam teacher will have his teaching certificate temporarily removed for "inappropriate contact" of students via social media.

A longtime Coquitlam district teacher will lose his teaching certificate for six months and will be required to take courses in professional boundary-setting after engaging in “inappropriate contact” through social media with students.

Erik Christian Oun has been disciplined by the Coquitlam school district and will lose his certificate temporarily for behaviour that the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation says showed “a lack of understanding of appropriate professional boundaries.”

According to a consent agreement published Tuesday, Oun was contacting two former students he had recently taught in Grade 5 at his school, messaging them on Instagram and via text.

During the summer of 2019, Oun exchanged messages on Instagram with Student A after texting the student’s mother to let her know he was chatting with her child.

In the text to the parent, Oun wrote that he chatted with a “very few select former students” but the student “has to be safe and so do I,” noting, “In this day and age, we all have to be careful.”

To Student B, he sent several texts asking the student for their mother’s permission to text with him. After receiving permission to chat, he sent Student B the same photo of himself that he sent to Student A, with the caption reading: “I’m very happy.”

In social media conversations with both students, Oun called them “sweetheart,” “sweetie” and “sweets” as well as “goof.” Oun added emojis to his messages, texting Student A, “You’re just so cool!” and messaging Student B that their pics were “awesome.”

“I love how you pose for pics,” he commented to Student B. And responding to another photograph sent by Student B, Oun wrote “in the pic you look adorable.”

The teacher also watched videos that Student B posted online and sent a text to the student, in which he wrote “Byw [sic] just watching your vids again! I love them!! You’re fun to watch!” 

When the student said they had not watched a PG-14 rated show, Oun texted, “You’re just not cool like me.”

On occasions when the students didn’t respond quickly enough, Oun called them “Snobby McRobertson” and sent video clips of a baby crying and a dog begging.

On one occasion, according to the consent agreement, Oun sent Student A several messages over one day, to which Student A did not respond. Oun wrote, “Aha. Caught you!” “Hey are you still allowed to chat? You’re not answering!” and “If I’m bugging you too much, I’m sorry.”

The “unwelcome” and “persistent” texting began to raise concerns and, according to the consent agreement, Student A’s mother asked Oun to stop texting their child.

In a response, Oun texted Student A’s mother, writing that he was “truly sorry” if he caused any problems and that “I clearly have made a poor judgement.”

He wrote that he would stop texting Student A “so much” although Student A was always welcome to text or visit. 

Other behaviour during the 2018-’19 school year is also noted in the consent agreement including an incident when Oun disclosed sensitive information about a student to a third student, and hugging of students.

On Feb. 18, 2020, School District 43 disciplined Oun by imposing a 25-day suspension without pay; a year later, on Jan. 9, 2021, Oun resigned from his employment. 

On March 18, 2021, the commissioner considered the matter and proposed a consent resolution agreement, noting that Oun “showed a lack of understanding of appropriate professional boundaries when he shared personal, sensitive, and confidential information about a student with another student; and “engaged in inappropriate contact through social media with young students.”

In addition to losing his certificate of qualification from May 17 to June 30, 2021 and from Sept. 1, 2021 to Jan. 15, 2022,  Oun is required to take the Reinforcing Respectful Professional Boundaries course through the Justice Institute — or risk having his teachers’ qualification further suspended.

By signing the consent agreement, Oun acknowledged the details of his misconduct are true and he agreed not to contradict any of his admissions, either verbally or in writing.