A B.C. high school teacher has been punished after being implicated in an apparent sting operation involving someone posing as a 14-year-old boy on Grindr.
A decision from British Columbia’s commissioner for teacher regulation named Carlo Deni Pavan as the teacher, with the incidents taking place in March 2023.
According to the decision, Pavan used Grindr to contact someone with an unknown profile who had no age listed. He later learned that the account belonged to a teenage male. The teenager wasn’t real, but was instead an “adult man” posing as a teen to catch suspected predators.
Pavan went by “Big Bear” on his Grindr account and was the one who initiated contact with the teenager on March 14, 2023.
The pair exchanged messages between 10:23 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., and the decision displays a large portion of the exchange between the two.
Pavan asked, “What brings you on Grindr?”
“Well I’m 14 so friends and maybe more idk,” the decoy responded.
Pavan then asked the “14-year-old” if they had any more pics, and the decoy responded that he wasn’t going to send any dirty stuff.
“I wasn’t asking. I don’t want to go to jail,” Pavan responded.
Pavan wondered why he didn’t like guys his own age, and asked if he kept his Grindr experience a secret.
Pavan texted, “Seems like something your family and friends would frown on…”
He added, “Or call the cops!”
Later in the conversation, Pavan says that he’s thinking of going for a walk. He tells the decoy, “Maybe you should go for a walk too…”
The decoy was tentative in their response to the invitation and asked for a picture. After sending an “expiring” photo that the decoy missed, Pavan refused to send another picture, saying it was “too risky” and that there were “like vigilantes and cops” and “I dunno if you’re real.”
Pavan tried to arrange a way for them to meet before saying, “But it’s this, or hit me up when you’re older.”
The commissioner pointed out that it was around 12:30 a.m. when Pavan proposed the two meet.
The next day, Pavan initiated another exchange with the decoy. Pavan sent a pic that the decoy saw, and then the conversation fizzled out, leaving Pavan hanging.
On March 16, the day after, Pavan messaged again, saying, “Hello?”
The decoy mentioned he was having issues with his phone and Pavan apologized for being paranoid saying, “I’m not sus. No cap.”
Over the next couple of days, they exchanged some more brief texts.
On March 18, they arranged a meeting, and Pavan offered to pick the decoy up at a Tim Hortons.
They did meet, but Pavan didn’t greet a 14-year-old; he greeted whoever the predator hunters were, referred to in the decision as “the Person.”
“Shortly after, the Person approached Pavan while Pavan was sitting in his car. Once confronted, Pavan drove away while the Person filmed him,” the Commissioner stated.
Videos were posted on a Facebook site where he was identified as a teacher.
For his role in the B.C. Grindr exchange, on June 13, 2023, Pavan’s employment was terminated, and he was hit with a ban for several years.
Pavan agreed to the cancellation of his teaching certificate and has agreed to not apply for another one for a period of seven years.
You can read the full exchange on the commissioner’s website.