A Chilliwack elementary school teacher has been reprimanded for failing to maintain a “positive, safe, and inclusive” learning environment for students in his classroom during the 2024/25 school year.
Peter William Gentile was initially suspended for three days without pay by the Chilliwack School District on Feb. 12, 2025, had to take a course through the Justice Institute of B.C., and advised to complete a BCTF mentoring program.
At the time Gentile was employed by the Chilliwack School District as an on-call teacher at a Chilliwack elementary school teaching Grade 5 students, when a district official filed a report about him to the B.C. Commissioner for Teacher Regulation on Feb. 13, 2025, according to the consent resolution agreement signed by the parties on March 12, 2026.
Facts according to the agreement:
• Gentile used a wooden stick to loudly smack desks when trying to get students in his class to pay attention or be quiet.
•When students in his class were not listening. Gentile asked them whether they wanted to “go to the chokey” a line from the movie Matilda where the principal placed misbehaving kids in a torture-chamber closet lined with spikes.
•When a female student was not listening, Gentile inappropriately patted his lap and said “please, come and see me.”
•When Gentile saw two students having a disagreement, he commented that the students were “bickering like a couple.”
•Gentile inappropriately told one twin student that their twin was the better looking one.
•Gentile teased a student whose parents would not let them be on camera for a You Tube project that he didn’t want them to “break the camera.”
•Gentile told a female student that they “could use some exercise.”
It wasn’t the first time, as the school district had raised concerns with Gentile previously, on Dec. 13, 2024, he had been issued a Letter of Discipline “for inappropriate and unprofessional communication” with secondary students.
The Commissioner ordered an investigation under section 47(I) of the Teachers Act on June 25, 2025, and on Dec. 4, 2025, they considered this matter closed and determined to propose the consent resolution agreement.
Gentile admitted to the facts, and the events constituted professional misconduct, and agreed to a reprimand. He also agreed that by Sept. 8, 2026 he would complete the course Reinforcing Respectful Professional Boundaries and provide proof of completion.