Coquitlam teacher who made students do pushups admits to misconduct

A Coquitlam teacher agreed that making students do pushups and complimenting the attractiveness of students qualified as professional misconduct in a recently released resolution agreement from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

Arthur Owen Sanderson agreed to a reprimand as well as a two-day suspension following a series of infractions that occurred in September 2022 when he was teaching students in grades 7 and 8.

In one incident, a student touched a pencil in a jar on Sanderson’s desk. The teacher had the student do 10 pushups in front of the class.

Another incident involved a student wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the Playboy logo. After taking the student into the hall and asking if they knew what the logo meant, Sanderson told the student Playboy was: “a magazine with nude ladies.” The student reported feeling embarrassed.

Sanderson also regularly referred to his students as “handsome,” “beautiful,” and “gorgeous,” telling his class he loved them all.

“Some students reported finding this strange,” according to the document.

Sanderson was also disciplined for discretely telling a student the manner in which they were sitting on a counter was: “distracting to people.”

The district sent Sanderson a letter of discipline and suspended him for four days without pay.

The letter emphasized that Sanderson needed to be: “be responsive to the emotional state and wellbeing of students.”

As part of the consent resolution agreement, Sanderson has agreed to complete a course on respectful professional boundaries through the Justice Institute of B.C.

The teacher also has to complete six counselling sessions focused on maintaining appropriate professional boundaries and communications with students.

“The punitive and physical nature of Sanderson’s discipline of students for relatively minor incidents, and specifically having students perform push-ups as a form of punishment, does not result in a positive, safe, and inclusive learning environment,” the agreement stated.

Sanderson was previously disciplined for not properly supervising students, failing to follow district COVID-19 protocols, and for bringing a ball python to the School as part of his Halloween costume.

As part of the agreement, Sanderson cannot make any statement: “which contradicts, disputes or calls into question the terms of this agreement.”

The agreement was signed by commissioner Ana R. Mohammed on Dec. 4, 2023, and published earlier this week.