A Kelowna teacher who has previously been sanctioned for actions in and out of the classroom finds himself in hot water again.
Justin Daniel Moses Enns, a math teacher currently listed among the faculty at Kelowna Secondary School, has been suspended five days without pay and ordered to complete the course "Reinforcing Respectful Professional Boundaries" through the Justice Institute.
The suspension, to be served June 5 to 9, 2023, comes as a result of an admission to "professional misconduct" stemming from three incidents in the fall of 2021.
The most egregious of those was a specific incident in late October, early November of 2021 involving a Grade 10 student in Enns' math class.
According to the consent resolution agreement, Student A removed one of their shirts in the classroom when it became hot. Enns, believing the student was making "inappropriate sexualized gestures" with their chest while readjusting their shirt, called the student to his desk and asked her to put the shirt back on.
The student, feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable, left the classroom.
When the student and a friend finally returned, Enns told the student he believed the were "cupping and moving" their breasts in a sexual manner, demonstrating more than once by grabbing his own chest.
In the fall of that year Enns, concerned about the frequency and duration of two students' trips to the bathroom, asked one for an explanation. The student felt uncomfortable having to share the information.
On another occasion, after denying the other student a request to go to the bathroom, the student told Enns they needed to go to the bathroom because they were on their period.
He responded saying, "you must always be on your period."
He was suspended 10 days without pay for those incidents which he served from May 9 to 20, 2022.
The district also spoke with Enns about his social media posts after he retweeted posts from 60 Minutes on trans identification in teens and one relating to a drag queen who led a "Drag Queen Story Hour" for children and who was arrested for child pornography. One parent complained the posts were "transphobic in nature," according to the consent resolution agreement.
Enns was not disciplined for the social media posts, but was given a verbal warning.
Other incidents involving inappropriate interaction with students and parents and what the district described as "lack of judgment in comments made to colleagues and in selecting photographs for inclusion in the yearbook were dealt with either verbally or in writing.
Enns was previously suspended five days for showing age-inappropriate videos and asking a student in front of the class whether they had attention deficit disorder.
