B.C. teacher barred from teaching shop class after student's hair ripped out by machine
CTV
A B.C. teacher is barred from teaching in "any classroom in which there is machinery with moving parts" after several students were injured in his woodshop class, including one eighth-grader who lost a large clump of hair and had to get stitches after an accident with a wood planer.
Documents published by the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation show Christian Michel worked as a middle school teacher in the Greater Victoria School District until his suspension and resignation from the district in 2020.
In February of that year, Michel assigned his Grade 8 students a project that involved building small tables from pieces of wood that had to be run through an electric planer.
The student, who later became the subject of the complaint, had never used the planer and Michel did not provide instruction on how to use it, according to a consent resolution agreement signed earlier this month.
Michel also failed to tell the student that their long hair, which reached down to their waist, should be tied back when using the tool.
Michel, who was certified as a teacher in 2007, told the student to "put the four pieces of wood through the planer, and to just give each piece a push," according to the facts of the agreement.
The student got three pieces through the planer and then signalled to Michel for help when the fourth piece became stuck. Michel pulled the wood out of the back of the machine without turning the power off and then told the student to push the wood through again as he moved to another part of the room.
The student continued to struggle as the wood became stuck again. The child reached around to the back of the machine, as Michel had done, without switching the power off.
The student's hair got caught in the planer and "a large clump" was ripped from their head, an injury that required stitches, according to the agreement.
