Canadian Teacher Who Showed 'Cannibal' Murder Video Fired

The video allegedly shows accused killer Luka Magnotta murdering Jun Lin.

ByABC News
June 15, 2012, 9:56 AM

June 15, 2012 — -- A Canadianteacher has been fired for showing his high school students a grisly video of porn actor Luka Magnotta allegedly murdering and dismembering his Chinese lover.

In dismissing the teacher, the board of the Cavelier-De LaSalle high school teacher in Montreal called the teacher's actions "as inappropriate as it is offensive."

The teacher, unnamed by the school, was suspended with pay on June 4, the same day the video was shown. He apologized to the school via email and was given the opportunity to tell the school board his side of the story on Wednesday.

"This decision follows an investigation by the CSMB [the school board], which took into account the seriousness of the action, the impact on the students involved, the human factor, as well as the standards provided for teachers' collective agreements," the board said in a statement on Thursday.

"The teacher's unacceptable behavior demanded action unequivocally," Diane Lamarche-Venne, president of the school board, said in a statement.

Magnotta, 29, allegedly stabbed Jun Lin to death, hacked up his body and mailed Lin's body parts to two Canadian government offices and Vancouver schools. Magnotta sparked an international manhunt when he fled Montreal and was captured in Berlin on June 4.

In addition to the killing and mutilation, the video also allegedly shows Magnotta taking a fork and knife to the body and performing lewd acts with the body parts, police said. Authorities have said that Magnotta posted the video online and by the time police got it removed, copies had already been made that can be found online.

The school also said that the past few days were "particularly stressful" for the teacher of 29 years and the students whose lives were disrupted by the events.

In the hours following the video's viewing, the school assembled a "crisis team of psychologists and psycho-educators" to be immediately available to the students. The team remained at the school for two days and a psychologist was present at the school for the rest of the week.

A spokeswoman from the Montreal Police Department told ABCNews.com that it would be possible for the teacher to face legal consequences for showing the video, but no inquiries have been made yet or charges pressed.

"We're checking the facts and what has been said," the police spokeswoman said. "We're still doing some verification."

One possible ground for pressing charges against the teacher would be that he showed images of a crime, which can be a legal violation.

"There is a chance, but we're really far from that right now," police said.

At least one student defended the teacher's actions.

Maude Aubin-Boivin, 17, who was in the class where the video was shown, told the Associated Press that it was the students who asked to watch the video. After some hesitation from the teacher and some students, the class voted with a show of 22 to 3 that the video be shown.

Aubin-Boivin called the instructor a "very good teacher" and told the AP that he warned students that some of the images could be shocking.

"For sure, at the beginning I found it tough," she told the AP. "But I wasn't traumatized or anything. We see so much these days on TV."

Magnotta is currently in Berlin awaiting extradition to Canada. He is expected to be returned by the end of June.