PROBE WIDENS INTO ALLEGED SCHOOL ASSAULTS
Toronto police receive two additional St. Michael’s videos
TORONTO • An investigation into allegations of assault and sexual assault at St. Michael’s College School has expanded after Toronto police said Tuesday investigators have received videos of two more incidents they believe are related to the private all-boys’ school.
Insp. Domenic Sinopoli, the head of the Toronto police sex crimes unit, said officers were trying to identify everyone in the videos, one of which involved an assault with a weapon, a belt. The second incident was a threat.
No one was injured in either incident.
“As it stands right now, we are investigating them as criminal offences, but that is not to say they are criminal offences,” he said at a news conference.
Sinopoli urged both victims and witnesses to come forward.
“I would rather that the persons who have been victimized or witnesses come to us rather than us coming to you,” he said.
The latest incidents bring to six the number of cases under police investigation that involve students of the Roman Catholic school that teaches grades 7 to 12. Police and the school have said two of those incidents involved an alleged sexual assault.
Six teens from the school were arrested Monday and charged with assault, gang sexual assault, and sexual assault with a weapon in connection with one of the incidents. Five of the teens turned themselves in to police, while another one was arrested on his way to school.
All six boys, aged 14 and 15, were released on bail on Monday afternoon.
Police have said they believe there are more incidents and more videos.
St. Michael’s expelled eight students and suspended another one in connection with the alleged sexual assault in a locker-room and another incident that police said involved hazing. Both incidents were captured on video.
Police sources have said the locker-room incident involved a group of students pinning down another student and allegedly sexually assaulting him with a broom handle.
The school, whose failure to promptly report the alleged sexual assault to police last week has come under criticism, has said the recent incidents clearly indicate it has “a problem.”
“We have a responsibility to keep our students safe, but our best efforts failed,” the school’s principal, Greg Reeves, told a news conference late on Monday.
The school had scheduled a meeting with alumni Tuesday evening for an “open discussion” about the scandal, said a former St. Michael’s student who planned to attend.
“This is a pure teaching point and this stuff doesn’t just happen at St. Michael’s,” he said. “It’s not the culture of the school, it’s the culture of society.”
Another former student, John-Paul Bedard, came forward last week with his own allegations of violent hazing when he was a student at St. Michael’s in the 1980s.
“I haven’t been pleased with the reaction of the school,”
WE ARE INVESTIGATING THEM AS CRIMINAL OFFENCES.
he said.
Bedard said he has sent messages to the school’s board of directors and its principal with an offer to speak to students as an advocate for survivors of sexual violence.
“Not one person at the school has even acknowledged the messages,” Bedard said.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Toronto Mayor John Tory said the culture at the school may need to change.
“What we need to look for is leadership from all fronts here, from parents, from the administration of the school and from the community ... to make sure that we learn from this and that justice is served,” he said.
The school said Tuesday all events involving external groups, sports teams, and public performances were being cancelled for the remainder of the year.