Neil Stewart Holmes was suspended from teaching in B.C. for 15 years following a series of incidents involving high school students in Nanaimo. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

inappropriate conduct

Former Nanaimo-Ladysmith teacher suspended after sexually-charged messages with students

Aug 2, 2023 | 10:42 AM

NANAIMO — The British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation has suspended a former local high school educator following a series of incidents involving students.

Neil Stewart Holmes will be unable to hold a teaching licence in B.C. for 15 years after he admitted to engaging in a sexual manner through online chats with at least three students between the summer of 2014 and the summer of 2016.

A consent resolution agreement signed by Holmes on July 19 and published by the commissioner this week showed Holmes began chatting with a recently graduated student in July 2014.

“Shortly after graduation, Holmes contacted Student A through Facebook,” the agreement detailed. “Holmes and Student A began using Facebook Messenger where they exchanged messages and photographs of a sexual nature.”

Further messages involved Holmes sending a photo of a classroom at Dover Bay Secondary School, indicating he would like to have sex with the student inside.

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A second student, who graduated in June 2015, was also identified through an investigation.

In the months prior to their graduation, the student found Holmes’ Tinder profile and reached out. Holmes said in the agreement he was aware the student he was messaging was a member of the school community.

“These text messages included communication from Holmes of a sexual nature. In June 2015, before Student B graduated from the School, Holmes sent Student B two sexually explicit photos of himself.”

The second student then posted a vague warning on social media around a year later suggesting “not all teachers at the School were good people”. Holmes’ name was attached to the post.

He requested the student remove it and threatened to contact police, according to the resolution agreement.

Finally, between February and April 2016, Holmes and a third student exchanged messages of a sexual nature.

The student in question graduated from the school in June 2015 and never had Holmes as a full-time teacher, but was familiar with him as a TTOC (teacher teaching on call) from when they were in grade nine and through school sports.

Holmes was eventually put on paid leave in February 2021 after information came to light. The District reported their findings to the Commissioner on Feb. 26, 2021, with an initial suspension coming from the Commissioner in mid-May.

On July 1, 2021, the District transitioned Holmes to unpaid leave until he resigned from his position in early January 2022.

He had been a teacher with an active license since September 2006.

In reasoning their decision to suspend Holmes’ license, the Commissioner stated “Holmes failed to maintain teacher-student boundaries by engaging in inappropriate communication of a sexual nature with current and former students.”

As part of the agreement, Holmes has said he will not make any contradictory statements to facts outlined in the document.

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