A Columbia Valley teacher has lost her teaching certificate following a British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation (BCCTR) Consent Resolution Agreement review.

Daphne Anne Neal was fired from Rocky Mountain School District (School District No. 6) in 2013 after she sent a series of inappropriate text messages to a Grade 11 boy while intoxicated. And on Jan. 28 the BCCTR noted in its Consent Resolution Agreement that Neal had agreed to a cancellation of her certificate of qualification under sections 53 and 64(e) of the Teachers Act.

According to the Consent Resolution Agreement (Agreement) Neal “failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries and inappropriately communicated through a series of text messages with a Grade 11 student in her class. In particular, on several occasions Neal sent the student messages late in the evening which were inappropriately personal in nature. On Dec. 14 (2012), Neal sent the student approximately 50 text messages, in which she was attracted to the student and told the student to keep their communication secret. In these text messages, Neal acknowledged her conduct was “not right” and that she could be fired for sending the text messages. Neal states that she was intoxicated when she sent many of the messages but acknowledges that this does not excuse her conduct.”

The next day following that series of text messages, Neal sent the student a text message pointing out how she saw him as an adult and not a student but also said, “I really need to remember you are just a kid; my apologies.”

The student was absent from class with Neal several times during December (2012) and January 2013 “because he felt uncomfortable” the Agreement highlights. “Neal did not mark him absent as required nor notify the school principal or his parents of his absences.”

The Agreement notes that in January 2013 Neal became aware that other people knew of the texts and she spoke privately to him during class time and asked him who he had told, noting that “it was a serious situation that could “go bad” for her.”

Once SD6 investigated the matter, the Agreement states, “Neal was not honest. She denied that she had sent any inappropriate text messages to the student. She misrepresented to the district that the student had flirted with her and she had texted him in December only to ask him to stop.”

The district enacted discipline on August 29, 2013, by terminating her employment.

The BCCTR was also provided with a medical report “which stated that Neal had a medical condition of mild severity that may have contributed to her conduct.”

See the full Consent Resolution Agreement.

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