Educators pulled from classrooms when missed emails about criminal records trigger automatic suspensions
Twenty teachers in Surrey, B.C. were told to stay home this week after their licences were automatically suspended over missed criminal record check updates.
But their union says emails about the were never seen because the messages landed in spam folders.
According to the Surrey Teachers’ Association (STA), the affected teachers were pulled from classrooms on Wednesday after failing to respond to notices from the province’s Criminal Records Review Program (CRRP) asking for additional information, such as fingerprints, as part of mandatory five‑year criminal record renewals.
STA president Amrit Sanghe told CBC the ministry’s emails ended up in many teachers’ spam folders, and said the suspensions were a direct result.
Criminal records checks in B.C.
Under B.C.’s Criminal Records Review Act and teaching certification rules, anyone who holds a B.C. teaching certificate must undergo a criminal record check every five years through the Ministry of Education and Child Care, even if they’ve recently completed a check for a school district or another employer.
The ministry forwards teachers’ information to the CRRP and, if there are questions or if fingerprints are required, the CRRP contacts certificate holders directly by email using the address on file.
The government’s own guidance stresses that teachers are responsible for keeping their contact and email information up to date in their online account and warns that if CRRP requests for more information are not completed within 90 days, the Teacher Regulation Branch (TRB) “must suspend” the certificate.
If a teacher still doesn’t comply within six months of the suspension date, the director must cancel the certificate altogether.
On its website, the province advises teachers that they can continue teaching while a criminal record check is being processed, as long as they’ve paid their annual practice fee, remain in good standing and “comply promptly with any requests for additional information.”
Requests end up in spam folders
In the Surrey case, Sanghe says the teachers had not ignored the process but simply never saw the CRRP’s follow‑up messages. He told CBC that the ministry was already aware there was a risk its emails could be routed to junk folders and argued officials should have used backup communication methods, such as mailed notices or coordination with school districts, before allowing licences to lapse.
A statement from the Ministry of Education and Child Care said there are currently about 160 teaching certificates suspended across B.C. for failure to provide required information for criminal record checks, says the CBC.
The ministry says the TRB makes “multiple attempts” to reach teachers using the contact details they have provided, and that the CRRP also contacts certificate holders by email or mail when more information is needed. While the ministry acknowledged that emails can end up in spam, it noted it has no control over individual email service algorithms.
By Thursday, 15 of the 20 teachers had managed to address the CRRP requirements and returned to their classrooms, Sanghe told the CBC, but five remained off the job — and none were paid for the day they were initially told not to report to work.
