A former York Catholic District School Board teacher who emerged as a prominent, polarizing social media presence during the COVID-19 pandemic, is facing allegations of sexually, psychologically and emotionally abusing students.
The allegations against Ryan Imgrund are outlined in a notice of hearing by the Ontario College of Teachers, a regulatory body for the province’s teaching profession. A disciplinary hearing for Mr. Imgrund will follow.
Mr. Imgrund did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. He resigned from the college in June.
The former teacher described himself as a biostatistician and amassed a wide following on social media for his commentary on provincial measures to combat COVID-19.
In the notice, it is alleged that Mr. Imgrund abused five female students, with the incidents dating back to September, 2016. All five students were on a school team that Mr. Imgrund coached, according to the notice.
The college said that between September, 2017, and February, 2021, Mr. Imgrund “engaged in an inappropriate personal relationship” with one of the students.
The college said he sent her “numerous” personal messages, took her for long drives, sent shirtless pictures of himself, and messaged her to say “‘if you don’t say I’m good looking I’ll cry,’ or words to that effect.”
When the student stopped replying to his messages, he “yelled at, and/or scolded her, and/or told her that he needed to be respected and/or otherwise communicated to her that she should continue to engage in electronic communications with him,” the college stated.
He also sent the other students “numerous messages of a personal nature,” the college stated.
The college alleged that during one-on-one practices with three of the students between September, 2016, and February, 2021, Mr. Imgrund used a “technique requiring the students to push their buttocks up against him.”
The college also stated that on an out-of-town school trip for a provincial tournament in November, 2017, Mr. Imgrund engaged in a “personal group message chat” with four of the five students.
He “banged on his ceiling/their floor when they did not respond to his messages” from his room below, according to the college. He also phoned the students “late in the evening and/or early morning hours” when they did not respond to his messages, the college alleged.