A teacher who worked at Vancouver’s David Thompson Secondary School has been found guilty of misconduct after failing to observe professional boundaries in his dealings with students.
A decision posted this week on the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation (BCCTR) website says long-time music teacher David Joseph Lamb had multiple inappropriate interactions with students. In one particular example, he was found to have emailed a female student many times after hours, often at night. As well, he spent time alone with her in the band room outside of school hours, wrote her personal messages, and gave her gifts.
The BCCTR says that in the 2018-19 school year, he told that student she was going to receive a grade of 50 per cent due to her personal life affecting her band performance. After meeting with her outside of class, the student’s grade was later changed to 100 per cent.
This is not the first time Lamb’s interactions with students have been called into question. The school district — School District No. 39 — gave him letters of expectation or discipline several times over the past two decades, including in 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2012. In one particular instance during the 2010-11 year, he failed to observe professional boundaries with students. This included making phone calls to students after hours and driving one of the students to school in the morning. Among other penalties, Lamb was advised in 2015 that he was required to take a Boundaries course.
The BCCTR says a penalty for this latest decision is yet to be determined.