A Port Alberni teacher has had his teaching certificate suspended for three days after encouraging students to hit each other with pool noodles in a physical education (P.E.) class.

According to a consent resolution agreement from the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, Russ Bodnar has agreed to a three-day suspension of his teaching certificate from March 13, 2024 to March 15, 2024. He is being disciplined for an incident in 2023, when he was teaching a Grade 9 P.E. class and allowed students to play a game of hockey using foam pool noodles instead of hockey sticks.

Bodnar encouraged students playing the game to use the pool noodles to hit one another.

鈥淒uring this activity, Bodnar was looking on and encouraging students by saying things like 鈥楤eat him! Get him! You can get him!鈥� and encouraging students being hit to 鈥榝ight back鈥� with their pool noodle,鈥� Commissioner Ana R. Mohammed notes in the agreement dated Feb. 16, 2024.

Although students were told not to aim for the head or to hit 鈥渢oo hard,鈥� students hit each other above the neck with the pool noodles and one student was hit in the face repeatedly, knocking the glasses off their face and causing the glasses to break. Despite the fact that the student鈥檚 face was 鈥渞ed, bruised and sore鈥� after the game, Bodnar did not complete an incident report, submit anything to school administration or explain to the student鈥檚 parents how their glasses broke.

Officials from School District 70 (Pacific Rim) issued Bodnar a letter of discipline, suspended him five days without pay and reported the incident to the B.C. Commissioner.

This is the third time Bodnar has been suspended by the school district in the last three years. He was suspended in 2021 for allegedly making 鈥渋nappropriate鈥� comments to his Grade 8 P.E. class, including encouraging students to 鈥渢werk.鈥� He was also suspended for another incident that happened the same year where he demonstrated an athletic technique on a student without the student鈥檚 consent. This second incident also resulted in a supplemental one-day suspension of his teaching certificate from the B.C. Commissioner, and Bodnar was removed from all coaching duties.

Mohammed said that Bodnar has 鈥渆ngaged in repeated concerning conduct鈥� and has 鈥渆xposed his students to physical harm and created an unsafe environment.鈥�

Along with the suspension of his teaching certificate, Bodnar will also be required to complete the Justice Institute of B.C. course 鈥淐reating a Positive Learning Environment.鈥�