B.C.’s teacher watchdog will suspend a Burnaby elementary school teacher’s licence for two days this month for “failing to create a positive learning environment” for her students and failing to appreciate the impact of her words and actions on them.
A consent resolution agreement finalized with the Teacher Regulation Branch this month points to incidents in Wynne Mon Eng’s Grade 5 classroom between September 2018 and January 2019, including times Eng “belittled, embarrassed and singled-out” students in a loud voice.
Eng asked one student in front of the class “Why are you not able to keep up with the rest of the class? Why are you so slow?” the agreement states.
To another student who had been on a family vacation and asked a question about some work, Eng said “You should know that by now.”
To a student who had volunteered to help with some drawing on the board, Eng said “No, you draw terribly, and you are so messy. You cannot do it. Go sit down.”
And she told students with messy desks their desks were “pigsties.”
“As a result of her conduct, students described feeling scared, nervous, embarrassed and stressed,” the agreement states.
The school district issued Eng a discipline letter on Jan. 24, 2019, pulled her from the classroom and gave her a substitute teaching job until a “suitable placement” could be found for her in another district school, according to the agreement.
Eng was also required to complete a number of remedial teaching courses, which she did in March 2019.
In deciding to suspend her teaching licence for two days (Feb. 22 and 23), Teacher Regulation Branch commissioner Howard Kushner noted it wasn’t the first time the school district had raised concerns with Eng about her interactions with students.
The district had already issued her three “letters of expectation” in January 2012, October 2016 and May 2016.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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