Former Lakeside School teacher who forged her teaching certificate issued 18-month ban – Kelowna News

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The BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation has banned a former Kelowna teacher who used a forged document in a job application from obtaining a teaching certificate for 18 months.

The sentence was issued in the case of Nicola Julie Pendleton, who applied for a job at Lakeside School Kelowna in June 2018. It follows a ruling in April that found her guilty of professional misconduct.

In releasing its decision on consequences, the panel that reviewed the case notes that this is the first instance of unauthorized practice under the Teachers Act in BC.

The woman received her teaching training in Australia and sought to obtain a professional certificate in that province. She was issued a conditional certificate on September 4, 2012, which was set to expire on June 30, 2017. She was granted a one-year extension, but it expired on June 30, 2018.

The panel alleges that when she applied for the job in June 2018 at Lakeside School, she provided a copy of a professional qualification certificate purportedly issued by the Teacher Qualification Service. However, TQS did not issue the certificate.

Pendleton was hired at Lakeside on August 30, 2018, and worked there until fall 2019, when the school learned she did not have an occupational certificate and that her conditional certificate had expired.

“In this case, the respondent lawfully held a conditional certificate, and her misrepresentations to obtain employment at Lakeside occurred within a period of a few months in 2018. However, the panel finds that this conduct (representing that she had a professional certificate when her conditional certificate was about to expire, and falsifying a professional certificate to obtain employment) is reprehensible and undermines the integrity of the profession in this province,” the panel wrote.

The panel calls Pendleton’s behavior blatantly dishonest.

Pendleton’s lack of remorse and continued representation during an investigation in 2019-2020 are also considered aggravating factors that she held a professional certificate long after her conditional certificate had expired.

The Commissioner did not award costs in the case. Pendleton did not attend the hearing on the findings and did not submit any submissions on implications before the June 30, 2022 deadline.