BC teacher suspended for commenting on students' breasts and bathroom trips
A BC teacher was suspended after he inappropriately singled out one student for their breasts and another for going to the bathroom.
The school district also spoke with the teacher about his social media posts, which at least one parent thought were transphobic.
Justin Enns, a teacher at Kelowna Secondary, was leading a Grade 10 math class in Fall 2021 when it grew hot in the classroom. A student removed their sweater and was attempting to shift their shirt underneath back into place.
But Enns thought the student was making inappropriate and sexualized gestures. He called the student up and asked them to put their over-shirt back on. The student felt uncomfortable and embarrassed, according to discipline documents posted online, and left the classroom.
A friend of the student left the classroom as well after seeing they were upset. When the friend came back, Enns asked them if the original student would come back and discuss the matter, and told the friend the student who took their sweater off had been grabbing their breasts — and made hand gestures to the friend mimicking that action.
A third student, also a friend of the student who took the sweater off, came and asked what the problem was. When both students returned to the classroom, Enns said he saw the student “cupping and moving their breasts in a sexual manner.”
Enns also attempted to demonstrate what he saw by grabbing his own chest.
That fall, Enns was also apparently concerned with the frequency and length of two students’ trips to the bathroom.
On one occasion, he asked the student why they needed to use the bathroom so soon after he’d granted another student permission to go. That made the student uncomfortable, discipline documents show.
A second student asked to use the washroom on another day and Enns denied them — apparently frustrated by how often they asked. That student told Enns they needed to use the bathroom because they were on their period. Enns apparently replied by saying, “You must always be on your period.”
The school district suspended Enns for 10 days without pay for his interactions with the students, which the district said were not in keeping with treating students with respect and dignity.
Then, that same fall, Enns retweeted a 60 Minutes segment about teens who de-transition and another about a drag queen story hour, where the drag queen was later arrested for possession of child pornography.
IMPORTANT @60Minutes – acknowledging the role of peer influence & social media in encouraging trans identification in teens, the rising population of detransitioners, & a medical system that “affirms” self-diagnoses of gender dysphoria in place of adequate oversight. https://t.co/XjA8sLO3fV
ā Abigail Shrier (@AbigailShrier) May 24, 2021
A parent at the school saw the retweets and contacted the school — concerned Enns had homophobic views. School administrators met with Enns to discuss his social media use, but didn’t discipline him over it.
This came after Enns already served a five-day suspension in 2019 for hitting a metre stick on students’ desks to get their attention, showing age-inappropriate videos, and embarrassing a student in front of the class.
Investigators revisited Enns’ behaviour and he will serve another five-day suspension starting June 9, 2023. He’ll also need to take a course on professional boundaries.
According to reporting by theĀ Penticton Herald,Ā Enns also compared vaccine mandates to tragedies such as residential schools back in 2021. Enns was one of dozens of Okanagan teachers who signed a letter decrying vaccine mandates, and spoke about his opposition to the mandate at a school board meeting.