Teacher who contacted female students loses licence

A B.C. teacher has lost his teaching licence after repeatedly contacting young female students he had once taught.

According to a ruling by the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, Bryan Edmund Cederholm was issued a teaching licence in July 2015 and was employed at an elementary school in B.C.

In early 2016 Cederholm was warned by the Kamloops-Thompson school district to stop having inappropriate electronic contact with students. Despite this, according to an agreed upon statement of facts, between October 2016 and January 2017 Cederholm exchanged messages with a 13-yearold female student he had taught when she was in elementary school.

Then in February 2017 Cederholm exchanged inappropriate messages with a 12-year-old female student he had also previously taught. The school district issued him a reprimand and suspended him for two days without pay. The district also reported the incident to the commissioner.

In April 2017 the district again contacted the commissioner after it learned that Cederholm had exchanged inappropriate messages with a 14-year-old former female student. During this exchange he sent the student a picture he had taken of some of his current students. Cederholm also contacted another former student, also 14 and female, on Instagram, leading to that student blocking the teacher.

The district fired Cederholm in March 2017. However, the following month the district again contacted the commissioner after receiving a report from a parent “regarding communications Cederholm had with their daughter.”

The commissioner investigated and determined that during the 2016-2017 school year, Cederholm had over the course of a week sent inappropriate messages to the 16-year-old female student.

Cederholm also showed the student text messages he had exchanged with another person about her. The student felt uncomfortable and blocked him from contacting her on social media.

In January 2018 the student who Cederholm had contacted between October 2016 and January 2017 reported him and that matter was brought to the commissioner.

On Jan. 24, 2019, Cederholm admitted his professional misconduct and agreed to the cancellation of his teaching certificate.

The commissioner stated in the report that Cederholm had lost his licence because his behaviour was inappropriate, occurred multiple times and that he had been warned in 2016 to stop.