A B.C. teacher has had her teaching licence suspended for five days after it was found she waited three hours to inform the school principal after a student threatened to harm themselves.
Deisy Maritza Ospina Ostios was working as an elementary school teacher at an independent school at the time of the 2022 incident, according to a decision from B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation released this week.
The decision said Ospina Ostios also breached the student’s privacy when she provided information about them in an email exchange with another student’s parent.
The principal reported the incident to the commissioner’s office Dec. 23, 2022, and pending an investigation, Ospina Ostios was placed on a two-day administrative leave.
When on Nov. 24, 2022, the teacher was issued a letter of expectation, she resigned, putting in her two-week notice that same day.
A year later, Ospina Ostios entered into a consent resolution agreement with the commissioner, in which the former teacher admitted her conduct constituted professional misconduct.
Immediately before she resigned from the school, Ospina Ostios shared her criticisms of the principal with her students’ parents by way of a group email, according to the decision.
The commissioner noted that the school had previously made clear its expectations about what teachers were supposed to do in case students threatened self-harm.
“The school’s staff handbook, which all staff had to sign off as having read, stipulated that worrisome behaviour, including vague threatening statements or other behaviours that cause concern, must be addressed in a timely manner and reported to school administration,” the commissioner said.
Ospina Ostios was suspended from Dec. 11 to Dec. 15, 2023. She agreed not to make any statement orally or in writing contradicting, disputing or calling into question the terms of the consent resolution agreement or the admissions made in it.
