A South Okanagan teacher who had previously run afoul of both the school district he works in and the B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch is again being reprimanded.
Miko McGrady is a Penticton, B.C., middle school teacher who recently had two complaints made against him in 2023 for disrespectful behaviour, according to the B.C. Teacher Regulation Branch.
The first incident had to do with McGrady emailing one student’s parents with concerns about their conduct in the classroom.
According to a consent resolution agreement published this week, on Feb. 6, 2023, he wrote an email to a student’s parents saying the student was capable of being good when they chose to, but also that they wasted their own time and were “warming a seat while distracting others.”
“McGrady’s email also questioned whether other options might be more beneficial, including an online math program or ‘homeschooling’,” the acting commissioner for the teacher regulation branch said in a report published Tuesday.
According to the report, McGrady went on to say that if the student was his child, he would take away “some or all of” their privileges.
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The student’s parents later said the email made them look “like bad parents.”
The second issue arose a month later, with a different set of students. McGrady was teaching a Grade 8 class when one student asked if they could go to the washroom. McGrady granted the request but said the student had to leave their cellphone in their locker.
The student did not heed the warning so McGrady asked two of the student’s friends to go look for them, the acting commissioner for the teacher regulation branch said.
A short time later, the friends returned and McGrady then asked them to try again. This time, however, he gave them his personal cellphone with the camera on.
The acting commissioner for the teacher regulation branch said McGrady sent them out “to find and photograph” their friend accessing their personal cellphone without permission. They obliged by hunting the student down but not by taking the photo.
These latest issues prompted the district to send a letter of discipline and send McGrady to a course called Reinforcing Respectful Professional Boundaries Training.
Three previous issues with McGrady in 2018, 2020 and 2021 prompted the district to issue letters outlining that he is expected to conduct himself at all times with students in a manner which respects both the boundaries of the professional relationship and appropriate interactions with students.
The most severe reprimand happened in 2010, when the district suspended McGrady for two days without pay following allegations that he used inappropriate language and made inappropriate comments to students.
He discussed the district investigation with his students and publicly identified students he believed had complained about him.
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