Former Newmarket high school teacher Ryan Imgrund has been found guilty of misconduct for sending inappropriate photos and having improper relationships with students.
Imgrund did not contest the facts brought forward in a disciplinary hearing by the Ontario College of Teachers June 12.
The former Sacred Heart Catholic High School teacher was found to have inappropriately interacted with five students he coached, including forming a longstanding inappropriate relationship with one of them that featured “grooming” behaviour. He also sent unsolicited nude photos in 2005 to an 18-year-old who he did not teach but did so while he was still a teacher, the hearing detailed.
College of teachers lawyer Danielle Miller said Imgrund breached professional standards in sexually abusing a student and otherwise exhibited misconduct in his interactions with students.
“In blurring professional boundary lines with five female students, the member showed poor judgment and a lack of commitment to the students' well-being,” Miller said. “In the way in which the member engaged with all five students, he breached the standards of care, respect and trust.”
A biostatistician, Imgrund became a go-to source for many media outlets during the early months of the pandemic.
The inappropriate conduct with five of his students dates between 2017 and 2021. Imgrund departed the teachers college June 8, 2022, after leaving York Catholic District School Board in June 2021 to pursue his work as a self-titled biostatistician.
In a non-contested statement of facts described by Miller, Imgrund was said to have overseen five students while on an athletic trip. Imgrund texted a group chat with those students to join him in a pool late at night, and when they did not respond, banged on their room’s floor from his room below and continued texting them.
After this, Miller said a superintendent warned Imgrund that this was inappropriate and ordered Imgrund to stop social media communication with students, to which Imgrund agreed.
But that behaviour did not stop here, Miller said, with Imgrund continuing to message inappropriately to students. With one particular student, Miller said there was longstanding personal communication over text, including exchanging personal photographs.
“The member placed Student 1 in a very difficult and uncomfortable position,” Miller said. “They had developed a personal and friendly relationship but (Imgrund) kept pushing the boundaries of that.”
A publication ban is in place for the names of all the victims in this case.
Miller said that during basketball practice, Imgrund engaged in a one-on-one boxing out drill with the student, so that the student’s buttocks would be close to his crotch area.
After the student tried to break off communication, Miller said Imgrund became angry and manipulative. Imgrund reportedly asked the student if she found him attractive, and when she responded in the negative, berated her.
In one instance, quoting from text conversations, Miller said Imgrund asked the student to open up more over text and to never have any regrets about anything she says to him.
“This is clear grooming behaviour, where he is fishing for her to express her feelings about him,” Miller said.
Concerning nude photographs, the separate incident dates back to 2005. Miller said Imgrund met the victim during a wedding. He messaged the victim and sent her the nude photographs, to which the victim did not reply. The victim did not report the incident until 2020 and Miller said police did not lay criminal charges in the matter because the victim was 18 at the time of the incident.
Imgrund took part in other unprofessional behaviour, Miller said. She described other incidents such as asking another student about the relationship with her boyfriend, blaring explicit rap music while driving a student to basketball games, and telling students it was OK to swear in his class as a “cool zone.” He also dressed in a student’s identifiable basketball jersey for Halloween.
Imgrund’s conduct featured sexual abuse, which carries a legislatively mandated penalty of a reprimand and removal of Imgrund’s membership with the college, and thus his ability to teach. But because Imgrund did not contest, allowing for an expedited hearing process, Miller said the college was not seeking additional penalties such as costs.
The disciplinary hearing panel ultimately decided to sentence Imgrund to the mandatory penalties, following penalty terms set out in a joint agreement from the parties.
The story will be updated with any further information from a notice of decision to be posted on the college's website.