Teacher suspended for showing South Park & John Oliver clips

Photo: pixabay

A Central Okanagan teacher has been slapped with a short suspension for showing his Grade 8 class age-inappropriate videos and singling out a student.

Justin Daniel Moses Enns, who is currently listed as a teacher at Kelowna Secondary, was suspended for three days, on top of a previous five-day suspension last year, according to the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation. 

During the 2018/19 school year, Enns showed his Grade 8 class a clip from “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” in which security passwords were discussed.

“John Oliver suggested that ‘admiralalonzoghostpenis420YOLO’ and ‘margaretthatcheris100%SEXY’ would be strong passwords,” said the consent resolution agreement.

“The second was a clip from South Park where an animated character was so engrossed in playing video games that he had his mother bring him a pot in which to defecate so that he would not have to interrupt his game,” the agreement continues.

On January 14, 2019, Enns asked a student in front of the entire class whether they had attention deficit disorder, leading the student to get upset and leave the classroom. While Enns would later apologize to the student, he also asked the student to apologize for leaving the classroom.

Two days later, the parents of the student emailed Enns with concerns about the incident as well as the two videos that had been shown.

When Enns responded to the parents, he embedded a link to the South Park video clip he had shown the class. He later forwarded the email to the school’s principal, but altered the message by removing the link to the South Park video clip, “a fact he did not bring to the principal’s attention.”

“Enns removed the South Park clip from the email he sent to the school principal as he did not want the principal to see it,” the agreement says.

Enns was suspended for five days without pay by the district, which was served in March 2019, and issued direction on expectations moving forward.

The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation notes the school district also issued Enns “letters of direction” in 2016 and 2017 “following allegations that he had interacted inappropriately with students and parents” and asking him to “exercise judgment and sensitivity in monitoring the appropriateness of all subject matter to ensure [his] classroom is a racism-free and discrimination-free environment.”

Enns agreed to a three day suspension of his teaching certificate, which was served June 4-8, 2020.