BC Teacher Suspended for Emailing Student, Using Sick Days for Japan Trip 

A B.C. middle school teacher who was fired last spring has had his teaching certificate suspended for two weeks in connection with claims of inappropriate emails with a student and taking sick leave to travel to Japan.

The B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation issued a decision this week stating that Alex Chen admitted to professional misconduct during his time teaching in the Saanich School District and accepted the suspension as part of a consent resolution agreement with the commission.

The commission also ordered Chen to take a mandatory course after emailing a student more than 80 times over a two-year period, conduct that the decision called “violations of professional boundaries.”

The commission’s decision did not reveal the age or gender of the minor involved, but said Chen initiated most of the email conversations with the student, including messages sent during summer break and on holidays like New Year’s Eve. He sent one message suggesting the student listen to sexually explicit music, while in another, Chen provided the student with a gift card, the commission said. 

He also attended games in which the student was scheduled to play, even though he was not involved as a coach or teacher, according to the decision. 

The Saanich School District fired Chen on May 5, 2025 after issuing a letter of discipline two months earlier for recording personal social-media content on school property during work hours, an action described by the district as “time theft.” Chen also displayed artwork, thank-you cards, and gifts created or provided by students in his videos, without permission, the decision said.

Chen then “fraudulently” booked time off for sick leave just one day later. The paid sick leave days corresponded with the three school days preceding spring break.

“Chen was not, in fact, sick, but had scheduled those days off so that he could fly to Japan,” the commission said in its decision, characterizing the trip as a “personal vacation.”

Chen will not be permitted to work as a teacher again until he completes his two-week suspension and the “Reinforcing Respectful Professional Boundaries” course through the province’s Justice Institute.

Chen taught in the Saanich School District but the commission’s decision did not name the school at which he was teaching before he was fired. 

The district is located on the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia, just north of Victoria. It serves the municipalities of Central Saanich, North Saanich, Sidney, and parts of the District of Saanich, with its administrative offices based in Saanichton and has nearly 8,000 students enrolled across its various schools.