Southeast Kootenay principal penalized after duct-taping student to desk

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A Southeast Kootenay principal has been suspended after duct-taping a student to their chair during the 2023-2024 school year.

Misconduct involving Renee Dawn MacCormack was published in a summary of a consent resolution agreement from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

According to the summary, MacCormack permitted a staff member to duct-tape the student to their chair and participated in the act herself.

“MacCormack gave permission to an employee at the school to use duct tape to tape the student to their seat,” the report reads.

MacCormack claimed the act was an attempt to help the student focus. She later captured a photo of the students work, removed the tape, and presented the child with a prize.

The Southeast Kootenay School District launched an investigation, during which MacCormack did not disclose her involvement in the incident.

As a result of the district’s investigation, MacCormack was suspended without pay for 20 days and reassigned to another school in June of 2024.

A second investigation was ordered by a commissioner on Jan.3, resulting in MacCormack complying to a five-day suspension of her teaching certificate, and a mandatory completion of a course pertaining to creating a positive learning environment by the end of March.

“MacCormack did not act with integrity when she did not disclose to the district in a timely manner her participation in the duct-taping of the student. This conduct undermines the perception of the profession as a whole,” the commissioner said in the summary.

“As a principal, MacCormack ought to have known this conduct was inappropriate.” The summary continued to add that other staff were aware of the incident’s flagrant nature.