Teacher convicted of molesting students out on bail

Disgraced high school teacher Robert Lavergne, who was sentenced to 17 months in jail this past October for molesting students across 10 years, is now on bail awaiting an appeal of his conviction.

Lavergne, 57, is living at home with his wife while appeal lawyer Howard Krongold fights to overturn the conviction.

Ontario Court Justice Catherine Kehoe said Lavergne's sex crimes were continuous and violated his students' sexual integrity.

In her sentencing decision, the judge noted Lavergne used his position of trust to sexually assault and exploit “vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in his class.”

Lavergne wasn't like the other teachers at St. Patrick's High School. He showered his favourite students with gifts, met teen girls at the auto shop on weekends and offered them drives home. He gave students his cellphone number.

He presented his welding and auto shop class as a comfortable place for teen girls to learn that trades aren't just for men.

Lavergne went on to groom two students, repeatedly groping, fondling and subjecting them to lewd, degrading comments.

The girls were devastated. In an unsettling victim-impact statement filed in court, one girl said: “My dreams of being a mechanic have been washed away and left me unsure of myself and my future. I have spent months bedridden and cannot work, attempted suicide several times. My social life has deteriorated by fear of being judged by other classmates, the ones that I thought were my best friends, didn't want to be seen with me and I became a laughingstock. Even my family looked at me as if there was something wrong with me.”

Lavergne was suspended with pay after his dark past came to light. He retired in November 2019, weeks after he was convicted of three counts of sex assault and sexual exploitation involving two students dating back to 2004 and ending in 2016.

The former teacher was granted bail hours after he was sentenced to jail in October.