A B.C. teacher was fired, and her teaching licence is to be suspended for five days after allowing a student to cheat on an exam.
The cheating incident occurred during the June 2024 school year, when the teacher, Tasha Dawn Whitney, was working as a high school teacher in School District No. 22 in Vernon, B.C., and as a school-based resource teacher at the school.
On June 12, 2024, Whitney was texting a Grade 12 student that the British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation refers to as Student A. The two were trying to arrange a time for Student A to complete an assessment to graduate.
During that text exchange, Student A said they wanted someone else to write the assessment for them. In response, Whitney listed the names of three other students, followed by the word “maybe,” and mentioned Student B as an option.
The next day, Student B came to the class to write the assessment. The Commissioner said that Whitney had responsibilities as an invigilator, including ensuring that each student only had one computer and their unique login information. She was also responsible for making sure that each student completed their own work, without using another unapproved device or information during the assessment.
According to the Commissioner, what transpired was that Whitney allowed Student B to have two laptops open and their cellphone for the entirety of the assessment period.
Whitney provided Student A with two unique login codes that were provided by the Ministry of Education, one for Student A and the other for Student B. Student B logged into one laptop with their code, and the other laptop with Student A’s code. Student B then completed an assignment for himself and Student A.
The Commissioner states that Whitney knew that Student B was writing Student A’s assessment and that Student A was not at the school on June 13, 2024.
During the assessment, Whitney left the room, and another teacher was invigilating the students. Whitney told the teacher that the reason Student B had two laptops out was that they were completing their Grade 10 and Grade 12 assessments at the same time.
The Commissioner’s report says that Whitney knew that wasn’t true.
After the assessment was complete, Whitney wrote Lit-12 June 13 on two separate sheets of paper, with one of the sheets having Student B’s name and the other having Student A’s name.
After the assessment period was over, the school’s principal reviewed the students who completed the assessment and noticed that Student A was listed as having completed one despite not being at school that day.
“Whitney repeatedly lied and minimized her role in Student A and Student B cheating. Whitney also lied to the teacher,” the report said.
On Sept. 13, 2024, the district terminated Whitney’s employment.
Whitney agreed to a five-day suspension of her certificate, effective June 1 to June 5, 2026. She was also required to complete courses about respecting professional boundaries.
The full decision is on the British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation website.