Headmaster says he should have acted
But Ashbury director doesn’t believe he erred by not calling police sooner
Ashbury College’s headmaster admitted that he should have immediately called Boston police after learning that one of his Grade 11 students had been sexually assaulted on a 2007 school trip, documents show.
The parents of the victim, who are both lawyers, are suing the four teachers who were on the trip, three students, headmaster Tam Matthews, and Ashbury College.
A statement of claim filed by the victim alleges the teachers failed to properly supervise the students on the trip, failed to report the sexual assault to Boston police in a timely manner, and complicated the investigation by allowing two of the students and the video of the sexual assault to leave Boston.
None of the allegations in the statement of claim has been proven in court.
During an examination for discovery in the civil case, Matthews admitted that he should have reported the sexual assault to Boston police immediately.
Matthews said he apologized to the victim’s family after the incident because they weren’t pleased with how the teachers handled the situation.
“I did not directly say, ‘I made a mistake. I apologize for my mistake’ because I did not believe in good faith that I had made a mistake,” Matthews said in discovery.
Matthews also admitted that two of the accused students should not have been sent back to Canada — out of the jurisdiction of the Boston police.
One of the students left with his laptop, which contained a video of the assault. One of those students pleaded guilty to common assault in 2010; charges against a second student are still before the courts.
Ian Middleton, one of the teachers on the school trip, said in discovery that he was asked by police if the laptop with the sexual assault video was sent with the students back to Canada to avoid charges against them in the U.S. Middleton said that was not his intention.
“There was an insinuation, again I’ll say it, that we had acted criminally,” Middleton said. “That’s pretty venomous.”
A statement of defence in response to the lawsuit filed by the victim’s parents says the claim that the teachers acted “criminally” in how they dealt with the incident “caused irreparable damage to the psychical and mental health of the teachers and caused them to suffer stress.”
A hearing into professional misconduct charges against Middleton and his colleague, Alyssa Ranni Novick, began Monday in Toronto over allegations they attempted to cover up the sexual assault.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit filed against Ashbury College, the private school’s headmaster and four teachers is still before the court.
The parents of the victim are seeking $150,000 for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, bad faith, and breach of contract, $10,000 for loss of care, guidance and companionship and $25,000 in general damages for the sexual assault, according to a statement of claim.
The parents also want to be refunded all of the money they paid to Ashbury College for tuition, enrolment fees and related expenses.