B.C. teacher has certification cancelled, 8-year ban on reapplying over relationship with student

A B.C. man has had his teaching certificate cancelled and agreed not to reapply for certification for eight years after he connected with a student from his school district on the dating app Grindr.

Adam Richard Macdonald entered a consent agreement with B.C.’s Commissioner for Teacher Regulation over his misconduct, which is summarized in a document published on the commissioner’s website Tuesday.

According to the summary, Macdonald’s teaching ban stems from conduct that occurred in 2016 and 2017.

In January 2016, Macdonald met Student A on a two-day field trip. The student was not enrolled at the school where Macdonald was teaching, but was a student in the same school district.

The district is not specified in the summary, which has been redacted “to protect the identity of a student who was harmed, abused or exploited by the teacher.”

In June 2016, Student A and Macdonald connected on Grindr.

“At this point in time, Student A was 17 years old but had claimed to be 18 years old in order to access Grindr,” the summary reads. “Macdonald was unaware of the fact that Student A was a district student during this period. They then ceased communication for several months until the 2016-2017 school year.”

During that school year, when Student A was in Grade 12, the two reconnected on Grindr and realized they had met previously on the field trip, according to the document.

They switched to messaging on Instagram and Macdonald gave Student A his phone number.

In the summer of 2017, when Student A was 18 and had graduated from high school, the two met in person at Macdonald’s home and “engaged in sexualized physical contact,” the summary reads.

“Over the course of the next year, Student A and Macdonald continued to periodically engage in physical contact, including kissing, cuddling and, on at least one occasion, oral sex,” it continues. “At one point, Macdonald told Student A that the district could not say anything about their relationship as they were at different district schools.”

The summary indicates that the school district had issued Macdonald a “letter of direction” in June 2016, directing him to “establish and maintain appropriate professional boundaries with students,” refrain from communicating with students about his “personal sexual experience” and participate in a district-approved boundaries course.

The district made a report about Macdonald to the commissioner on Feb. 5, 2024. The summary does not specify the reason for the eight-year delay between the start of Macdonald’s relationship with Student A and the discipline proceeding against him.

Macdonald resigned from the district on the same day the report to the commissioner was filed, according to the document. He signed an undertaking not to teach in any role regulated by B.C.’s Teachers Act on Feb. 15, 2024.

Under the terms of the consent agreement, Macdonald agreed to have his teaching certificate cancelled and not to reapply for certification for a period of eight years.

“Macdonald’s behaviour was a serious breach of his position of power and trust as a teacher,” the summary reads.