B.C. elementary teacher suspended for angry outbursts
Credit to Author: Scott Brown| Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2019 23:12:02 +0000
A B.C. teacher with a history of anger management issues has had his teacher’s licence suspended for three days for professional misconduct.
Mark Walter Zatylny let his anger get the best of him while working as an elementary teacher in the Peace River South school district, according to an agreed statement of facts posted Tuesday by the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.
While teaching Grade 4 in the fall of 2017, Zatylny would frequently yell and be visibly angry in front his students. He would blow a gym whistle to control his class which was so loud that students covered their ears when he used it.
During one angry outburst, Zatylny slammed a wall and his desk with a closed fist and then raised a rod as if he was going to hit the wall.
That incident earned him a 10-day suspension from the school district.
Zatylny later received a letter of discipline and a further 15-day suspension from the district for interfering in an investigation into his behaviour. Zatylny told an education assistant who worked in his classroom not talk to anyone about what she had seen.
“As Zatylny was the education assistant’s direct supervisor, she reported feeling threatened by this conversation,” the commissioner’s report states.
Zatylny, who had previously been suspended in 2015 and again in 2016, resigned from the school district on June 8, 2018.
The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, noting that Zatylny had “demonstrated behaviour which created a negative learning environment,” suspended his teacher’s licence from Nov. 12-14.