Island teacher suspended after encouraging pool-noodle battle

A Vancouver Island high school teacher has had his teaching certificate suspended for three days after encouraging students to hit each other with pool noodles during a hockey game where the spongy toys were used as sticks.

A student hit in the face by a pool noodle ended up with broken glasses and a bruised face, the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation said in suspending Russell Stephen Bodnar, who teaches in the Pacific Rim School District, which includes Port Alberni and other west Island communities.

The commissioner said in the decision that the district had “raised concerns” about Bodnar on two occasions in 2021.

In one instance, he was suspended for three days without pay and removed from coaching duties after allegations he “made a student feel uncomfortable during an athletic practice when he suddenly used the student to demonstrate a technique,” the decision said. The nature of the technique was not specified.

In the other case, he received a letter of discipline and a fourday suspension without pay after allegations he made “inappropriate” comments to students and encouraged a Grade 8 PE class to “twerk.”

“Twerking” is a form of dancing that includes hip thrusts.

The pool-noodle incident was reported to the commissioner by the district last March.

The decision said that Bodnar encouraged students playing the pool-noodle hockey game to hit each other with the pool noodles, “although they were directed not to hit one another in the head and not to hit one another ‘too hard.’ ”

The teacher urged the students on by saying things like “Beat him!” and “Get him!” the decision said.

“Despite Bodnar’s direction, students were hitting one another above the neck with the pool noodles in a manner which some students described as aggressive,” the decision said.

Bodnar was aware that the student’s glasses had been broken and commented that they had been hit “pretty hard,” the decision said, but he didn’t follow up to check on any injuries, didn’t file an incident report to school administration and didn’t tell the student’s parents how the glasses were broken.

Along with the suspension, Bodnar is required to complete a course through the Justice Institute of B.C. called Creating a Positive Learning Environment.