A Winnipeg teacher has been stripped of his licence over a years-long “inappropriately close relationship” with a student that began in a middle school and continued after the student went on to high school.
Robert Gregoire texted the student hundreds of times from his personal phone and over 1,000 times over Microsoft Teams between 2022 and 2024, referring to her variously as “ma belle,” “my beautiful,” “muffin” and “princess,” according to an Oct. 6 disciplinary decision from Manitoba’s independent teacher commissioner.
Gregoire fostered “an increasingly personal relationship” and prioritized “his own emotional needs” over the student’s well-being, states the report.
“This conduct represents a serious abuse of the trust.”
Gregoire’s is one of two new disciplinary decisions posted publicly on the commissioner’s disciplinary decision dashboard, which was launched earlier this year.
In 2022, Gregoire began an “inappropriately close relationship that crossed professional boundaries” with a Grade 8 student at the middle school where he worked in the River East Transcona School Division.
Gregoire eventually left his post as a teacher at the middle school to follow the student to her new high school in the division in 2024, the decision states.
Between 2022 and 2024, he and the student exchanged over 1,000 Microsoft Teams messages, including during school breaks and vacations, “late at night and in the early hours of the morning,” the report states.
Gregoire referred to her as his “favourite student” who was “très spéciale,” or very special, according to the discipline report.
He told her he missed her and that getting a message from her after a bad day gave him a smile, and repeatedly requested she visit him at the middle school after she left.
Gregoire invited the student to meet him outside school at restaurants near her high school. He also invited her for ice cream after school, and to meet with him on weekends and on winter break for skating, the report said.
Cautioned by principal
The principal of the middle school where Gregoire worked cautioned him in June 2024 against messaging students and reminded him to only communicate with those he was instructing for educational purposes.
The principal pointed to the division’s code of conduct for child protection, which prohibits writing personal text messages to students and offering special treatment, as well as spending time with students outside of school hours, the disciplinary decision says.
Gregoire ignored the principal and kept texting the student, it says.
He notified the student he would pursue a job opportunity at her school. Later, he messaged her that he was happy to learn he would be teaching one of her classes.
In December 2024, Gregoire hugged the student goodbye at the high school, according to the report. The division put him on administrative leave that month.
River East Transcona School Division filed a complaint with Manitoba’s independent education commissioner on April 20 of this year. The commissioner’s office ordered an investigation the following day and Gregoire was fired.
He subsequently agreed to the facts surfaced through the commissioner’s investigation and agreed they constituted professional misconduct.
Gregoire surrendered his teaching certificate in May. It was permanently cancelled after the investigation wrapped.
“The thousands of messages exchanged over several years, together with Mr. Gregoire’s failure to disclose the relationship, demonstrate a sustained and deliberate pattern of misconduct rather than isolated lapses in judgment,” the report concludes.
Gregoire took responsibility for his behaviour and expressed remorse, the report adds.
2nd teacher loses licence
Brady Nurse also lost his teacher certification in a recent decision by Manitoba’s teacher commissioner for inappropriately communicating with a student, in what was described as “a fundamental breach of a teacher’s duty of care to students.”
Nurse was employed in the Portage la Prairie School Division when, between October and December last year, he exchanged texts with a student.
The commissioner’s report characterized the messages as “inappropriate communications” involving “a student experiencing circumstances of heightened vulnerability,” which Nurse was aware of.
The division launched its own investigation after being approached by RCMP about Nurse on Dec. 9.
Nurse provided copies of texts between him and the student the next day.
A week later, the division asked if there were any other messages that hadn’t been disclosed.
Nurse claimed he had provided all of the messages, but when asked specifically about text messages exchanged on Nov. 18, he retrieved more messages that had been deleted.
He was put on leave two days later.
In an interview with division staff in January, Nurse admitted he didn’t share every text initially out of concern that some “might be perceived as inappropriate,” the report states.
Nurse admitted to his conduct. He resigned in March and surrendered his teaching certificate in May. It has since officially been cancelled.
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