Inappropriate late-night texts to students costs teachers their jobs

Manitoba’s independent teacher commissioner has cancelled two certificates this month because of inappropriate late-night messaging with minors.

Robert Gregoire is no longer permitted to teach in the River East Transcona School Division or elsewhere in the province after he was found to have called a student “my beautiful” and “princess,” among other pet names he used in online communications over multiple years.

Brady Nurse, who became the subject of a workplace probe after RCMP contacted the Portage la Prairie School Division about his actions, was also recently stripped of his licence.

New consent resolution agreements — public documents outlining agreed-upon facts and consequences in disciplinary cases — reveal the men in both cases repeatedly engaged in boundary-crossing behaviour.

In both cases, commissioner Noni Classen concluded the teachers sent messages to a student during the school day, late at night and into the early hours of the morning.

Gregoire used both his school-approved Microsoft Teams account and personal cellphone to exchange thousands of messages with “Student A,” beginning in March 2022 when she was a Grade 8 student of his.

The middle school teacher told the girl he missed her and “made reference to Student A being his ‘favourite student’ and that she was very special (‘très spéciale’) to him,” according to a summary of the case.

After the girl graduated from middle school, he repeatedly invited her to visit or meet him in-person near her high school. He invited her to go to restaurants, get ice cream and go skating.

Text messages show he asked the student if he should apply for a new job and she was the first person he told when he received an offer to transfer in 2024.

Classen concluded the teacher participated in “a sustained and deliberate pattern of misconduct” that had the potential to interfere with the girl’s understanding of healthy relationships.

“Mr. Gregoire’s conduct was unacceptable and falls well below the standards expected of teachers entrusted with the care and education of students. RETSD took the matter seriously,” superintendent Sandra Herbst said in a statement.

Herbst said the division, the second largest of its kind in Manitoba, supports the commissioner’s ruling. While noting she is appreciative of Classen’s efforts to ensure “the highest standards of teacher conduct,” Herbst said there are inaccuracies in its record keeping about this case.

She said she has contacted Classen’s office about the timeline published in the consent resolution agreement.

Classen did not immediately provide a response to the allegations Tuesday.

Both Gregoire and Nurse voluntarily entered consent resolution agreements.

Gregoire’s certificate, which he earned in 2009, was cancelled on Oct. 6.

Nurse permanently lost his licence on Oct. 16 — less than five years after he became a certified teacher in Manitoba and approximately one year after public records state he began sending inappropriate texts to a student.

Classen did not publish the sex or grade of the student involved in this case.

“Nurse engaged in inappropriate communications with a student experiencing circumstances of heightened vulnerability known to him,” the documents said.

His former employer did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Nurse, who resigned from the division in March and voluntarily surrendered his certificate on an interim basis in May.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca