B.C. teacher fired over text messages

A B.C. high school teacher has lost her teaching licence for sending inappropriate text messages to a Grade 11 boy while she was intoxicated.

Daphne Anne Neal was also fired from the Rocky Mountain School District in 2013 after the incident came to light, according to a consent resolution agreement reached with the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation last month.

According to the statement Neal admitted she was intoxicated and "failed to maintain appropriate professional boundaries" when she sent the student text messages saying she saw him "as an adult not a student."

On one particular evening in December 2012, Neal sent the student roughly 50 text messages saying she was attracted to him.

The next day she wrote again to say, "I really need to remember you are just a kid, my apologies."

Later she asked him to keep the messages secret, saying the situation could "go bad" for her. She also failed to mark him absent when he later failed to show up for class.

When the school district, which islocated in the East Kootenay region of B.C., did find out, Neal initially denied she sent inappropriate messages, saying she was only asking him to stop flirting with her.

Neal later provided the commissioner with a medical report which stated she had a mild medical condition that may have contributed to her conduct.

• Read the full consent resolution agreement