A British Columbia teacher will not be eligible for recertification for at least eight years after engaging in inappropriate conduct involving a student he met during a school-related field trip, according to the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.
In a consent agreement posted online, the commissioner found that Adam Richard Macdonald was employed as a teacher in a B.C. school district when he met a Grade 11 student in January 2016 during a two-day field trip involving multiple schools. The student, identified only as “Student A,” is a member of a local Indigenous community.
Approximately five months later, Macdonald and the student connected on the dating app Grindr. At the time, the student was 17 but claimed to be 18 to access the app. The agreement states that Macdonald was initially unaware the individual was a district student, and the two ceased communication for several months.
During the following school year, they reconnected on Grindr and realized they had previously met on the field trip. Their communication later moved to Instagram and text messaging after Macdonald provided his phone number.
After the student graduated from high school, the commissioner found that the two met at Macdonald’s home and engaged in sexualized physical contact. Over the next year, the agreement states, the pair periodically engaged in physical contact, including kissing, cuddling, and at least one instance of oral sex.
The commissioner noted that Macdonald told the student the school district could not take action because they attended different district schools.
In 2016, the district had issued Macdonald a letter directing him to maintain professional boundaries with students and to refrain from communicating with students about his personal sexual experiences. In February 2024, Macdonald resigned from the district and signed an undertaking not to practise.
Under the consent agreement, Macdonald’s teaching certificate will be cancelled, and he has agreed not to apply for recertification for eight years.
The commissioner concluded that Macdonald’s actions constituted a serious breach of the position of power and trust held by teachers, citing inappropriate sexual contact with a person he knew had recently graduated from a district school.
