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As part of the demonstration, he placed a white plastic bag over a student’s head. A colleague who was present in the classroom reported that students who were watching “appeared shocked” and looked at him for his reaction. The student with the bag on his head appeared “spooked” after it was removed.

Vesey then took a larger black plastic bag and placed it over his own head to perform the demonstration on himself. Although he believed the demonstration posed no safety risk, Vesey acknowledged to the panel that the appearance created by placing the bag on the student’s head was inappropriate.

In a “rapid combustion demonstration” conducted that same month, Vesey coated the interior of a large blue water cooler bottle with a substance that was not named in the decision, drained away the excess, lit a match and held it to the mouth of the bottle.

The demonstration, which he has conducted hundreds of times in his teaching career without incident, was held in honour of a student’s birthday. The student’s sister videotaped it. The bottle was placed on a table between one and two metres from the student’s desk and other students gathered around. Vesey asked the students if they were ready and turned off the lights.

A colleague who was present in the classroom “reported seeing flames shoot up almost to the ceiling, followed by a loud blast as pieces of the water cooler bottle were ejected by the ignition,” according to the decision. Some pieces of the bottle landed on Vesey’s desk and he extinguished them with his hand.