Double jeopardy leads to reinstatement of B.C. teacher suspended and fired for kissing former student

A teacher who was fired for hugging a former student and kissing her on the neck has been reinstatedafter the KamloopsThompson Teachers' Association challengedhis dismissaland had the ruling overturned.

On Tuesday, however,Kamloops-Thompson School District superintendentTerry Sullivantold CBC News it will appeal.

"The board does not agree with the arbitrator's decision and they've determined they're going to appeal the decision to theLabour Relations Board," Sullivan said.

At issue is an incident betweenmiddle-school teacher Brett Edward Wasylikand aformer studenton Nov. 12, 2016.

According to a 2019 consent resolution agreement published by the B.C. Ministry of Education, Wasylikbehaved inappropriately with his former student at a Kamloops restaurantduring an end-of-season celebration dinner with a sports team.

He noticed astudent he had taught in Grade8 and Grade 9 was working there as a hostess.

The middle-school teacher was first licensed to teach in B.C. in 2001 andthe school district confirmsthe girl was 17 at the time of the incidentand had recently graduated.

The incident

At one point, Wasylik approached the former student and spoke to her for five minutes, commenting on her appearance, saying she was looking "f--king hot."

He showed her photos of himself, including a shirtless one, and later walked her to her car after her shift, hugging her and kissing her neck.

In November2016, Wasylikwas suspended for three days without pay by the school districtand he wasrequired to complete a course on reinforcing respectful professional boundaries after denying the allegations.

Less than one month after the incident, the school district says it submitted an investigation report to the teacher regulation branch.

The subsequent consent resolution agreement revealed that Wasylik was dishonest in his denialto the school district. After this was revealed, he was fired in August 2019.

Appealing the dismissal

The KamloopsThompsonTeachers' Association stepped in and grieved his dismissal and won based on the argument he was let go after already being punished for the same incident when he was suspended without pay for three days.

The school district'sSullivan says officialsarenotsatisfied with thedecision because the teacher initially denied wrongdoing.

"One of the major reasons that they felt so strongly was because the original termination was for dishonesty in relation to the inappropriate sexual misconduct," Sullivan said.

ArbitratorKen Saunders said the argument of double jeopardy comes into play in reinstating Wasylik. That meansthe employer the school district could not punish him twice for the same case with both a suspension and then dismissal.

"Itwould becontraryto ...thefinalityofsettlementstopermitthe employer to discipline the grievor in 2019 for substantially the sameconduct [from 2016]."

"I conclude the employer has not established just cause for discipline. The dismissal fails at the first stage of the test for just cause ... and there is no basis to substitute another penalty. The grievor must be reinstated," Saunders said in the decision.

Sullivan said there's no word on when the labourboard will heartheappeal, but he said Wasylik is not currently teaching in the district.

"We have teaching standards in British Columbia and they apply to teachers whether they're on the job or off the job," Sullivan said.