Kylejeet Singh Grewal wrote to parents instead of raising concerns with school administrators
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A Coquitlam high school teacher has agreed to a one-day suspension of his teaching certificate after writing to a student’s parents telling them their son was a “gangster wannabe” and later speculating to school administrators that the student and a parent were in a gang.
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Kylejeet Singh Grewal sent the “inappropriate and unprofessional email” voicing frustration with the student in November 2022. He hadn’t taken his concerns to school administrators before writing it.
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Grewal told the parents he didn’t have the expertise to “help someone who does not want to be helped,” and recommended they turn to a “board-certified psychiatrist for evaluation.”
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The teacher followed up that letter by writing another “unprofessional” email about the student to school administrators in which he speculated, among other things, that the student and a parent were involved in a gang.
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He also made inappropriate comments about the student to a student while counselling that student not to date him, saying he “was not a good kid, would not treat them well, had sold drugs, and that they should not be friends” with the student.
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The one-day suspension was announced by the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation in a signed agreement posted online Tuesday.
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In another instance, Grewal “acted inappropriately and unprofessionally during an interaction in the hallway with two Grade 11 students.
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“The interaction was confrontational and when the students refused to accompany Grewal to the office, Grewal said to the students: ‘Are you too much of a pu–y to go to the office?’”
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When a vice-principal told Grewal the interaction was being investigated, Grewal confronted one of them in class, telling him “that he had no problem giving him a zero on an assignment.” He then asked the student: “Are you going to report me again?”
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Grewal later complained about that student to a resource teacher, saying he was “just toxic to me” and that he had made a “false complaint” against him.
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The pattern of inappropriate comments continued with other students. In one case, while telling a student to get to class, Grewal said “that he bet the student felt pretty good about themself for selling drugs to underage kids, and when the student identified that they worked for their parent, Grewal said, ‘I bet you do.’”
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The commissioner said that when the district investigated, Grewal “was repeatedly not forthcoming or honest about the incidents or his conduct.”
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In May 2023, he was disciplined with a seven-day suspension without pay. The next month, the commissioner launched its own investigation that resulted in a further one-day suspension. It was served last month.
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