BC teacher faces two-day license suspension, anti-racism training for treatment of Indigenous students

A British Columbia teacher who was fired in June 2020 for her treatment of two Indigenous students will undergo a two-day license suspension and will be expected to complete anti-racism training before she is able to return to the classroom. The decision stems from multiple incidents in the classroom with Indigenous students. In 2019, teacher Deborah Laurie Croft grabbed an Indigenous Grade 11 student’s arm and took their phone in an attempt to make them leave a classroom, and in 2020, CTV News reports that the teacher asked an Indigenous Grade 10 student who had been disruptive to leave the classroom and hit the student “on the rear end” with a book as they were leaving. When determining Croft’s consequences, the Teachers Act commissioner determined that Croft had acted in a matter “inconsistent with an educator’s responsibility to contribute to truth, reconciliation and healing” and that she had failed to treat students with dignity and respect.