A Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district teacher was fired and had his teacher’s certificate cancelled for sexting with a former student a year and a half after she graduated.
The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation released this month a consent resolution agreement following an investigation around Curtis Vizza’s “inappropriate conduct of a sexual nature” with a former student. The agreement was signed last month.
“There was a noted pattern of female students hanging out in Vizza’s classroom, around Vizza’s desk and around Vizza generally,” the document noted. “Some of these students would confide in Vizza about personal matters, including health, fitness, anxiety, sex, pregnancy scares, drugs, relationships, and problems in general. Vizza provided these students with advice, although he was not a counsellor.”
The investigation related to an incident involving a student who had been in the teacher’s physical education class in the 2018-19 school year, and viewed the teacher as a “stable person in whom [the student] could confide.”
In June 2019, the student graduated, and in December 2020, she and the teacher re-connected over Snapchat and began exchanging messages which grew increasingly sexualized and included the teacher sending sexually explicit photos.
In June 2021, the school district notified the teacher that he was being investigated for inappropriate conduct and in November 2021, the district terminated his employment. His certificate of qualification has now been cancelled, and he will not be allowed to re-apply for five years.
Vizza is the former coach of the V.I. Raiders junior football team.
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bailey.seymour@nanaimobulletin.com
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