Two B.C. teachers reprimanded for racially insensitive interactions with students​on March 26, 2025 at 1:00 pm

Two B.C. teachers have been reprimanded for dealing with students in a racially insensitive way, including one who made his students translate a French word for “slut.”

William Donald Harvey was teaching in a Burnaby high school between 2021 and 2023 when several interactions made his students feel embarrassed and uncomfortable.

In a Grade 11 French class, Harvey split his classroom by gender even though he was well aware one of his students was nonbinary, after regularly rejecting the student’s preferred pronouns.

He sometimes talked about students’ grades in front of their classmates, including criticisms their peers could heard. On one occasion, he told the class three of the students were falling behind and were “slackers.”

While talking to a student of Japanese descent, Harvey asked if “it’s a cultural thing” for Japanese people “to drink more than you can handle and then throw up at parties.”

While discussing countries that use the suffix “stan” to a Grade 9 class, he explained that people from Afghanistan or called Afghans, among other examples, then also discussed people from Pakistan and the word “Paki.”

“A student whose family was originally from Pakistan reported feeling very embarrassed, offended, and upset as a result,” said the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation in an agreement with Harvey posted online Tuesday.

During another Grade 11 French class, he wrote the word “pétasse” on the whiteboard, repeated it several times, told students it meant slut in English, then made students write it down as a vocabulary exercise. “At least one student reported feeling very uncomfortable as a result of this,” said the commissioner.

Harvey was issued a letter of discipline in 2024 and made to take a course in classroom management and anti-racism strategies. After an investigation, he admitted the conduct amounted to professional misconduct and agreed to a reprimand. He must now take another course in creating positive learning environments.

Another teacher — whose name and school district was redacted to protect vulnerable students involved — also ran afoul of the commissioner for culturally insensitive exchanges with Indigenous students and for having a “temper tantrum” in front of students.

While working as an administrator, the teacher wrote an “overtly angry and disrespectful” email to one of two Indigenous siblings in the school who came from a challenging home environment.

The teacher signed off their email by writing: “Or you are more than welcome to go to another educational institution if you are so unhappy with our services.” The teacher also forwarded the email to another school employee and wrote ” … obviously I am at the end of my rope with this family.”