A B.C. teacher faced disciplinary action after showing some high school students a video depicting someone’s death.
According to the British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, the incident took place during the 2023/2024 school year in a metalworking shop.
The consent resolution agreement states that in February 2024, teacher Bradley Bootsma was teaching a metalwork 11/12 class in the Chilliwack School District. The metalworking shop has two lathes.
Bootsma was teaching students about lathe safety and told them he would play a video where a person reaches over a lathe and is sucked in and dies. He did give the students a disclaimer, suggesting that if they didn’t want to watch the video, they could either look away or step outside the shop.
While he told students the video depicts someone dying, the consent agreement says the video shows someone getting injured.
He then played a video he obtained on the internet, which, according to the resolution agreement, shows “what appears to be a worker at an industrial shop reaching into a lathe and getting pulled into the machine and becoming physically injured.”
The video was 52 seconds long and contained no audio.
Several months later, on July 31, 2024, the district issued a disciplinary letter to Bootsma, suspending him for two days without pay. He was also required to meet with the school administrator for support to ensure he is sourcing appropriate learning materials.
Bootsma served the suspension in June 2024.
The Chilliwack teacher admitted that some of the facts set out in the consent agreement constituted “professional misconduct” contrary to standard #1 of the Professional Standards for BC Educators.
The consent agreement says that the B.C. teacher took steps to ensure his teaching materials were appropriate moving forward, and he did not face any further discipline.