Teacher sanctioned for sexual encounter with female student

Male declared unfit for membership in ATA over 20-year-old incident

A southern Alberta teacher who had sex with a junior high student in his classroom closet may be stripped of his teaching certificate.

In a written ruling released Wednesday, a professional conduct committee of the Alberta Teachers’ Association said former teacher Shane Cameron Mazutinec is guilty of unprofessional conduct for failing to treat a student with dignity and respect, and bringing dishonour to the teaching profession.

“Mazutinec cultivated a relationship with a demonstrably vulnerable student. He groomed this relationship with the student with the ultimate goal of sexually exploiting her and comfortable in his belief that any disclose of (the) same by her would likely be discredited,” wrote the conduct committee, made up of chairwoman Wendy Maltais, Bart Heine, and public member Lynne Davies.

The committee declared Mazutinec permanently ineligible for membership in the association, which would prevent him from teaching in any Alberta provincially run school. The committee also imposed a $10,000 fine and recommended Alberta’s education minister cancel his teaching certificate.

Mazutinec did not reply to requests for comment.

Mazutinec had been a social studies teacher at Vauxhall High School from 1993 to spring 2014, Horizon School Division superintendent Wilco Tymensen said. The superintendent wouldn’t say when the school division received a complaint or whether Mazutinec resigned or was fired.

Little information is available about what transpired between Mazutinec and the student 20 years ago, other than the two had sex in a classroom closet. The ATA will not release information on whether Mazutinec taught the student involved, how long the relationship lasted, how old she was, or what grade she was in at the time of the relationship.

On April 5 and 6, a teachers’ association professional conduct committee took the unusual step of closing Mazutinec’s disciplinary hearing to public observers at the request of prosecuting officer Cory Schoffer.

“My primary witness would be severely impacted,” Schoffer said. The former student now has three school-aged children who do not know what happened, Schoffer said.

“There has been chatter in this community for years,” he said.

The committee’s report, which did not include the identity or role of any of the witnesses who appeared, said two witnesses testified about a different incident that provided “similar fact evidence” to support the charge. The report does not describe the other incident or explain what the evidence was.

The penalties, which are the most severe the association can levy, should protect students, the profession and the public from Mazutinec’s “egregious” and “predatory” behaviour, the report said.

“The public and the teaching profession will not tolerate a teacher who exploits or grooms a relationship with a student for sexual gratification,” the committee wrote.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Hal Turnbull said Mazutinec has no criminal record.

Mazutinec, a former Western Hockey League player with the Lethbridge Hurricanes from 1987 to 1989, now sells cars in Lethbridge. He was part of a group that established the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball in the small southeastern Alberta town.