Teacher out of a job after asking students if they want to 'play with my chalk'

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A high school teacher has been dismissed by the Ottawa-Carleton School Board and was found to have engaged in sexual misconduct by an Ontario College of Teachers disciplinary panel after making suggestive comments about chalk to a student.

Under the Ontario College of Teachers Act, which governs teachers in the province, sexual misconduct is “inappropriate behaviour or remarks of a sexual nature” that is not sexual abuse.

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A female student testified to a panel of the College disciplinary committee that in 2019 teacher Michael Van Genetvoort repeatedly commented to her: “Why don’t you come up here and play with my chalk?’ and “Don’t you want to come play with my chalk?”

The incident was one of a number of allegations addressed by the three-person panel of the College’s disciplinary committee in hearings held between June 2023 and December 2024.

The panel also heard allegations that Van Gentevoort yelled at students, arbitrarily removed students from the class, publicly discussed students’ performance on a quiz and told students “not to have hope” in his class, as well as allegations that he made a comment about surgery and catheters to students.

Van Gentevoort was dismissed by the OCDSB on Aug. 21, 2020. He is listed by the College of Teachers as being “inactive/non-practising.”

The panel’s decision was released this April in a 49-page report.

The school is not named in the report, and the grade and course were redacted. Details that might lead to identifying the six students who were allegedly the subject of sexual misconduct can’t be released under a publication ban because they were under 18.

Van Gentevoort had been teaching since 2001 and had been at the school since 2013, according to his testimony. He denied the allegations.

The panel’s task was to decide whether the allegations had been proven on balance of probabilities, and if so, whether the conduct gives rise to a finding of professional misconduct under the Ontario College of Teachers Act, which governs the profession.

The female student testified that she did not understand what the teacher meant about the chalk comments, “but felt uncomfortable and laughed nervously,” according to the report.

“Afterward, she spoke with a student who observed the incident and came to think the (teacher’s) tone of voice insinuated a sexual suggestion.”

One student witness recalled that Van Gentevoort was “smirking and giggling” while he made five to seven comments about the chalk and the question seemed to be a “sexual entendre.”

Van Gentevoort denied in his testimony that the chalk comments had a sexual intent. He said he brought coloured chalk to the class to help the female student better understand the graphs he drew on the board because she had difficulty understanding them.

The student often doodled on the board and he told her the chalk was not for playing and that it was in short supply, Van Gentevoort testified, according to the panel’s report.

“She responded by saying that she was going to enjoy playing with the chalk,” the report said.

“She then made a joke to the other students, and they started to laugh. The (teacher) asked (the student) what was so funny and repeated to her that she could not play with the chalk. The (teacher) testified that the students kept laughing so he asked them what was so funny about him saying, ‘No, you may not play with my chalk.’ ”

Another student witness testified that there were topics in class that were off-topic that made her uncomfortable.

“She testified and maintained during cross-examination that the (teacher) spoke about a female nurse and a catheter,” the report said. “While she could not provide any more details about that conversation, (the student) testified that it was unrelated to what they had been learning in class.”

According to Van Gentevoort’s testimony, he asked the students if there were any professions they thought were not equal among genders and gave the example of a nurse and explained to the class that in certain medical situations, it’s possible a patient would want a nurse of a particular gender.

“He recalled that students asked him for examples, and he gave the example of having a catheter removed.”

Van Gentevoort also denied that he yelled at students or removed them from class, but admitted that he would raise his voice by a few decibels. He denied he ever told the class he had surgery on his genitals.

The disciplinary panel found that Van Gentevoort engaged in sexual misconduct and acts of professional misconduct.

The panel concluded that the chalk comments were sexual in nature and was of the view that if Van Gentevoort did not know from the first time that he made the comment that it was sexual innuendo, he ought to have known it from the class’s reaction, such as laughter, when he repeated the comment.

The panel also found that a reasonable person would expect that students exposed to these types of remarks “would have become distressed by them and the remarks would create a negative environment in the classroom.”

On the other hand, the panel did not find that Van Gentevoort’s discussion of surgery and requiring a catheter amounted to sexual misconduct, and did not find that he told the class he had surgery on his genital area specifically. However, he could “easily have picked another topic to demonstrate his point that female-dominated professions could benefit from increased representation from men,” the panel’s decision said.

According to testimony from one student, after handing back a quiz that most students failed, a student said she thought she would have done better. Van Gentevoort commented that the students should not believe in themselves, have hope in themselves, or hope to do well in the class, but should do better because it was not an emotional course but a logical course.

The panel concluded that Van Gentevoort failed to maintain the standards of the teaching profession under the Ontario College of Teachers Act when he shared students’ grades on a quiz in front of the class, and instructed students to clap for those who had received the top three marks, and when he made a discouraging comment to students not to have hope in class.

“This is clearly not treating students equitably and with respect,” the panel’s report said. “The students’ evidence that these comments made them feel anxious and discouraged demonstrates that (the teacher) created a negative learning environment that did not promote student learning.”

The teacher also failed to comply with the Education Act, which says it’s the duty of a teacher to “encourage pupils in the pursuit of learning.”

“The (teacher) did the opposite when he told students not have hope in (his) class” and he committed acts that “would reasonably be regarded by members as disgraceful, dishonourable or unprofessional,” the report said.

“Making sexual innuendoes/jokes to a student casts serious doubt on (the teacher’s) moral fitness and his ability to discharge his professional obligation to ensure students’ well-being.”

The College of Teachers discipline committee hears and decides on alleged professional misconduct or incompetence, and decides if the member is guilty of professional misconduct and/or is incompetent under the College of Teachers Act.

Penalties may include revoking the teacher’s certificate os suspending it for up to 24 months, imposing specific terms and conditions on the certificate and requiring that a teacher be reprimanded, admonished or counselled. In the case of professional misconduct, a fine of up to $5,000 may be imposed.

Simone Truemner-Caron, a lawyer for Van Gentevoort, said there was no comment at this time.

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