A teacher and former principal at a North Vancouver Waldorf school has had his teaching certificate suspended for two months after showing a knife to an autistic student and telling her to “use this to erase your life.”
Gerard MacIntosh, a Grade 8 teacher at Vancouver Waldorf School in North Vancouver received the suspension after several incidents of professional misconduct during the 2013/2014 school year.
According to a notice posted online by the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, in early 2014 a girl in MacIntosh’s Grade 8 class who had been diagnosed with autism asked him for an eraser. In response, MacIntosh held out a pocket knife to the girl in front of other students and said, “Here, use this to erase your life.”
In another incident, during a Halloween party for grade 7 and 8 classes, students asked MacIntosh if he was going to wear a costume. MacIntosh replied that he was already in costume, as he was dressed up as a pedophile.
The decision posted by the teacher regulation branch refers to MacIntosh as teaching at an independent school in North Vancouver.
Online material indicates MacIntosh worked at the Vancouver Waldorf School in North Vancouver when the incidents took place, where he was a teacher and a former principal.
In May of 2014, the school placed MacIntosh on paid leave. Contrary to instructions from the school, MacIntosh told some parents he was on leave because of students in his class. He was reprimanded for that, and later stopped being the principal.
MacIntosh was on leave from August to December 2014, during which time he completed a course on “professional identity and boundaries.” He resigned his job in December.
As part of the agreement with the teacher regulation branch, MacIntosh admitted his conduct amounted to professional misconduct and agreed to the suspension.
