A school teacher has been suspended after inappropriate contact with young students through Instagram.
Erik Christian Oun was an elementary school teacher for the Coquitlam School District. A report from the BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation says that Oun “engaged in inappropriate contact through social media” and shared “personal, sensitive, and confidential information about a student with another student.”
According to the Commissioner, Oun failed to observe professional boundaries on at least two occasions. One of these occasions involved “Student A,” a fifth-grade student during the 2018-19 school year.
During the school year, Oun taught Student A and “often hugged” them. After the school year had ended, he texted the student’s mother to explain that he was chatting on Instagram” with them. Oun told the mother that he had “a very few select former students” that he chatted with, stressing that it was only with the knowledge of their parents.