B.C. teacher banned 10 years for relationship with student after graduation
Robert Ian Collett exchanged romantic emails with a Grade 12 student, then kissed them at a park one month after they graduated.
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A British Columbia teacher has been handed a 10-year ban from teaching after engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a former student that began during the school year and continued after graduation.
Robert Ian Collett, who taught at an independent school in B.C., exchanged numerous romantic and intimate emails with the student during their Grade 12 year. After the student graduated, the pair met at a restaurant to discuss personal matters, then at a park where Collett hugged and kissed the student.
The student emailed Collett afterward asking him not to contact them again. Collett responded with what the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation called a "good-bye poem."
The school terminated Collett's employment for cause on December 13, 2023, two months after the principal reported the conduct to the commissioner. On June 4, Collett entered a consent resolution agreement admitting to the inappropriate conduct. The commissioner deemed the 10-year ban appropriate because the relationship arose from a teacher-student dynamic and represented a serious failure to maintain boundaries that compromised the student's emotional safety and well-being.