Teacher Who Disrupted BC School Vaccine Clinic Saying Parental Consent Is Needed Reprimanded for Yelling

A syringe is prepared with COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination clinic in Montreal, on March 15, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Paul Chiasson)

A high school teacher, who was suspended without pay after raising his voice in a pop-up COVID vaccine clinic while objecting to students receiving shots without parental permission, has been formally disciplined by the British Columbia Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.

On Jan. 24, a consent resolution agreement was posted online by the provincial regulatory board, stating that Patrick James Nelson—not to be confused with another teacher with the same first and last name but a different middle initial, also in the same school district—signed an agreed statement of facts that said the events amounted to professional misconduct.

Nelson, who could not be reached for comment, works as a teacher for School District 82 Coast Mountains, which covers the area in northwestern B.C. between Prince Rupert and Prince George.

According to the resolution agreement, on Oct. 6, 2021, Nelson objected to a COVID vaccine clinic that had been set up in the school cafeteria.

“Students who were legally able to make decisions for themselves were encouraged to attend the clinic in order to get vaccinated,” said the agreement.

Nelson left the class he was teaching, made his way to the cafeteria and “angrily interrupted and disrupted” the cafeteria with students present. Nelson said health authority nurses were “guests” at the school and had “no legal right to immunize students without parental permission.”

Nelson said the vaccines were “experimental, dangerous, and poisonous and should not be used,” and said the health authority staff were being “unethical” in how they presented vaccine information, and how they offered vaccines to children.

He concluded by saying the health workers should be “ashamed of themselves.”

Reportedly some students in the cafeteria were upset and had to leave, and another school staff member called the office.

Suspension

The agreement goes on to say that one of the nurses attempted to calm Nelson down, and he “approached the nurse without wearing a mask over his nose and mouth” and “proceeded to yell and point his finger in the nurse’s face.”

During this discussion, the nurse was eight to 10 centimetres away from Nelson, which the regulatory body notes was not consistent with “physical distancing safety protocols” in place by the school district.

Nelson was formally written up and suspended without pay from March 7 to March 18, 2021, and forced to write a written apology to the health nurses, and attend a meeting with students and staff at the school.

He was also made to undergo a mandatory course, “Reinforcing Respectful Professional Boundaries and Human Relations,” before Sept. 1, 2022.

It was Nelson’s second time taking the course, as he was previously instructed to do so on Nov. 12, 2019, after being disciplined then for using a swear word when frustrated in class.