Provincial teacher watchdog releases names, details in three disciplinary matters Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
By: Maggie Macintosh Posted: 6:07 PM CDT Thursday, Aug. 20, 2026 Last Modified: 11:19 AM CDT Friday, Aug. 21, 2026 Updates

An Interlake teacher with a history of “intimidating” outbursts has been ordered to participate in counselling and study anger-management strategies after he made a child cry.

Manitoba’s commissioner of teacher professional conduct has published a handful of new disciplinary decisions about separate incidents involving public-school educators making inappropriate comments to students.

Edward Cloud is among the teachers who have admitted to engaging in this type of misconduct and agreed to related consequences in order to maintain their teaching certificates.

Three new consent resolution agreements — written reports that outline incident facts and disciplinary action, also known as CRAs — name Cloud, Brandon-based vocational teacher Tim Taylor and Lorraine Marsland, a substitute teacher in Winnipeg.

“Teachers hold privileged positions of trust and must communicate with students in a manner that preserves dignity and supports learning,” commissioner Noni Classen wrote in an agreement with Cloud that she signed on July 31.

The seven-page document indicates an investigation into a June 2025 incident revealed the teacher has a history of troubling behaviour with early years students.

The probe revealed Cloud, a certified teacher since 2012, confronted a Grade 4 student during an outdoor activity he was leading on one of the final days of the 2024-25 school year.

He singled out a student who was not following instructions to speak to them “in an aggressive tone and accompanying angry facial expression, while wagging his finger.”

Later on, when the class was engaged in free time, he called over the student, got down to their level and made comments along the lines of, “Is your brain a brick?” “What’s wrong with you?” and “I worry for your life.”

A colleague who witnessed the interaction, which lasted between three and five minutes, consoled the child, who broke down in tears, and reported the incident to school administration.

“Is your brain a brick?”

Interlake School Division staff were told the child was scared to see Cloud again and wanted to go home. Cloud was placed on administrative leave within 48 hours.

The commissioner’s office received complaints about the teacher from both his employer and a member of the public shortly after classes began last September.

“Cloud has displayed a pattern of inappropriate verbal and physical expressions of frustration that have been intimidating in nature towards students,” Classen wrote.

The agreement noted Cloud’s failure to acknowledge a student was in distress and console them contributed to her ruling.

Classen prescribed four professional development courses and individual counselling sessions. Cloud is expected to complete training on anger management, child development, classroom management and positive and professional relationship building.

Similar consequences were identified in another consent resolution agreement finalized with a vocational industrial teacher on June 26.

Taylor, who obtained his teaching certificate in 2021, pulled two students aside after class to confront them about their disruptive behaviour.

“I’ve had it. Try me, bro.”

(His CRA states the incident took place on Dec. 11, 2025, but that date conflicts with the dates of the consequences outlined in it. The commissioner’s office indicated it was looking into the matter. Neither the Brandon School Division nor Manitoba Teachers’ Society provided the correct timeline upon request.)

The teacher reportedly made a series of statements, including, “Shut the f—k up and work hard for 15 minutes and then you can go on your phone… I’ve had it. Try me, bro.”

Taylor later apologized to the students, reported the situation to his administrators in the Brandon School Division and went on medical leave, during which he proactively sought anger-management programming. His employer issued a letter of discipline and an unpaid suspension last October.

The commissioner’s office ordered him to complete courses on classroom management, adolescent development and maintaining professionalism and preparing a “learning and reflection report.”

Taylor has until the end of the month to submit the report.

In that case, as well as the two other recent cases settled with employees in the Interlake and Winnipeg, Classen found the teacher in question felt remorse about their behaviour.

Former union president James Bedford said “time will tell” if requiring a teacher to participate in extra professional development in the wake of an incident will be an effective intervention.

“It’s new territory for teachers,” Bedford said about the system that launched on Jan. 6, 2025.

Bedford, a retired high school science teacher, led the union representing roughly 17,000 public school teachers between 2019 and 2023.

He said he sees value in the new model. Prior to the creation of the independent office, complaints were handled by schools, divisions, school boards or the union.

“I don’t think there’s big problems in the education profession.”

“I don’t think there’s big problems in the education profession,” he said, adding the commission’s early findings appear to back up his belief.

He noted that few teachers have been subject to complaints.

Earlier this week, Classen’s office released a report that revealed 94 complaints were made within 15 months of the new system’s launch.

Given there are roughly 20,000 certified teachers working in public and private schools, that means about 0.5 per cent of them were flagged for concerning behaviour between January 2025 and March 2026.

The report shows that the commissioner did not take any action after reviewing 17 complaints.

There have been nine consent resolution agreements to date. One of them involves Marsland, a teacher of nearly 40 years who was substituting in the River East Transcona School Division last year.

A public complaint resulted in a probe that concluded Marsland made the comment, “Asian boys should not disturb the class,” to a child when she was teaching a group of Grade 7 students in the fall.

The remark was made when Marsland confronted an Asian student who had been throwing a football inside her classroom and did not obey her requests to put it away.

The agreement she signed said she failed to create an inclusive environment by commenting on a student’s race and linking misbehaviour to their identity. It also said she offered an apology and has taken responsibility for her misconduct.

No additional training was identified in the case.

The publication of cases is considered a consequence in and of itself.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca