People leave St. Michael's College School following a parent information meeting relating to an alleged sexual assault involving students in Toronto on Nov. 16, 2018.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Eight students have been expelled from St. Michael’s College School over two videos, one showing an alleged sexual assault, as the elite Toronto academy revealed that it is examining a third incident.
Police are investigating multiple occurrences of “alleged assaultive and sexually assaultive behaviour" involving St. Michael’s College School students. “At this stage, police believe there may be other victims and witnesses and are encouraging anyone who has not yet spoken to investigators to come forward by calling the Child and Youth Advocacy Centre,” the police service said in a news release Friday.
The school released its timeline of events on Friday, which detailed three separate incidents coming to their attention over the past five days. It was the first official confirmation of a “third incident.” The Globe and Mail spoke with a parent who said her child viewed the alleged third video in a Snapchat group of approximately 35 to 40 people on Wednesday night, allegedly depicting a boy performing a sex act on another boy in front of a group of others. She said her child, who does not attend the school, e-mailed administrators from St. Michael’s, believing the video to involve its students.
The new video was allegedly viewed in the same Snapchat group as the graphic sexual-assault video that’s been under investigation by Toronto Police since midweek. Two police sources who spoke with The Canadian Press say that the sexual-assault video being investigated since Wednesday allegedly involves a St. Michael’s football team, in which a group of boys allegedly held down another student and sexually assaulted him with an object. The school said Friday that the video took place in a locker room.
By the school’s own account, it learned about the locker-room video on Monday evening. Earlier that same day, the school had contacted police about a separate videotaped incident, where the two police sources who spoke with The Canadian Press say members of the basketball team allegedly bullied a student and soaked him with water. The school said that incident took place in a washroom. “Advice was provided to the school, and no further action was taken or received,” Constable Caroline de Kloet said.
An internal school investigation was launched into the boys’ washroom incident, and on Tuesday, four students were expelled because of that probe. Also Tuesday, the school interviewed students identified as allegedly being involved with the locker-room video. Faculty and staff were informed Tuesday about both incidents. On Wednesday, four other students were expelled for the locker-room video, plus one suspended in connection to the washroom incident. Police also learned about the locker-room video on Wednesday, but Constable de Kloet told The Globe and Mail that they learned about it through media inquiries.
The timeline released by the school doesn’t specifically answer why administrators didn’t inform police right away about the locker-room video, which police have said meets the definition of child pornography. “There have been many questions about our handling of the matter and the sequence of events leading to the expulsion of eight students and one suspension,” the school wrote. “The priority for the last three days has been on the victims, students, and our staff and faculty.”
Several meetings have been held at the school, including two with parents on Friday. Administrators and coaches met with the junior football team Thursday. A Facebook post on the school’s page from last week boasted about their junior football team’s championship victory in the independent school conference. The school has said that the season is now cancelled.
“As school administrators and educators, we bear a heavy responsibility to help guide our students through a challenging period in their lives – when external forces are often in conflict with the notion of doing the right thing,” the school wrote Friday, “and these incidents were a stark reminder that we have more work to do.”