A Canadian teacher has reportedly been suspended for showing students the likes of Salad Fingers, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, and ASDF Movie.
James Thwaites, who was working as a school teacher in a district north of Prince George, British Columbia, decided to show his junior high students the web videos, which made the rounds on the internet several years ago. The videos were accordingly dubbed "creepy" and "disturbing".
Per the document outlining the suspension - written by BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation, Howard Kushner - the incidents occurred in January of 2018.
“One called Salad Fingers featured an animated character who says ‘the feeling of rust against my salad fingers is almost orgasmic’ followed by 'I must caress your rusty kettle.' The second film was called Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared which shows puppets drawing skulls, then trying to glue glitter on an anatomical heart, cutting a pie made of bloody meat and writing out the word ‘death.' The third video was called the ASDFmovie which depicts stick characters including one female stabbing each other in a fit of jealousy, and then a number of dead stick children,” reads the document.
Further to the Salad Fingers occurrence, it appears that Thwaites had trouble establishing boundaries with his students. He was allegedly disciplined for speaking to students about their "crushes". He also told them about his "expensive" divorce, and how he was currently dating a foreign woman.
For the above incidents, Thwaites was given a two-day retroactive suspension this month.
The document that served the suspension - which was signed by Thwaites and the commissioner in early July - states that he acknowledges that he "demonstrated poor judgement in his interactions with students in sharing inappropriate videos and personal information with them."
According to the Coast News, the teacher stepped down from his position in British Columbia, and is now teaching in the Yukon.
