Ian Alexander Stephen McKenzie, an erstwhile gym teacher from Vancouver Island, has been stripped of his teaching license permanently due to an inappropriate relationship with a vulnerable 15-year-old student, which quickly escalated into a romantic liaison soon after the student graduated.
McKenzie’s employment history includes instructing physical education and social studies in a high-school that forms a part of the Sooke School District. His tenure lasted from 2007 through September 2022, after which he was officially prohibited from instructing in any British Columbia institution that serves kindergarten through Grade 12. These developments are part of a consent resolution agreement that McKenzie reached with the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.
As per the agreement disclosed on Tuesday, McKenzie confessed to fostering a relationship with the underage student that clearly violated professional ethics. Consequently, he agreed to the annulment of his teaching credentials and to willingly accept a lifetime embargo on attempts to restore them.
The student, who was part of McKenzie’s gym class during the 2007-2008 timeframe, has had their identity safeguarded under the terms of the agreement. The commissioner’s official statement elucidates McKenzie’s awareness of the student’s vulnerabilities and emotional isolation, which in turn led to their increasingly personal and intimate entanglement over the ensuing three years.
McKenzie’s improprieties ranged from exchanging personal emails and texts to sexually suggestive remarks. He routinely spent private time with the student, including post-school hours at his residence, and engaged in extended hugs and moments of physical contact not appropriate in a teacher-student dynamic. McKenzie stressed the importance of discretion to the student, assuring them they could openly date once the student turned 18.
In the months following the student’s graduation, McKenzie’s relationship with the student did indeed evolve into a romantic and sexual union. According to the terms of the agreement, signed by both parties earlier this month, the commissioner condemned McKenzie’s blatant exploitation of his position of trust and authority to manipulate the student to his own personal and sexual benefit.
The banned teacher first received his teaching certification in May 2006 from the B.C. College of Teachers. He had been employed within the Sooke School District which comprises 28 educational institutions, inclusive of four secondary schools, spread across the regions of Langford, Sooke, Colwood, Metchosin, Highlands, and Port Renfrew.
