Parents of students at St. Michael’s College School questioned school administrators Friday over several incidents on campus that came to light this week, prompting a round of expulsions and a police investigation.
On Monday, the all-boys Catholic school says, it became aware of an assault on a student that occurred in a washroom and was filmed and circulated on social media.
Also on Monday it says it learned of a second more serious incident that involved the alleged sexual assault of a student with an object in a school locker room.
Toronto Police has launched an investigation into numerous incidents involving "alleged assaultive and sexually assaultive behaviour."
Parents were provided with a timeline of the school’s response on Friday, which states administrators knew of two incidents of assault by Monday. The school says it informed police of one incident on Monday, but conducted an internal investigation into the second, more serious incident, before passing the information to police on Wednesday.
At the meeting with parents on Friday, a source who attended, told CP24 that parents brought other incidents of bullying to the attention of school principal Gregory Reeves. The source told CP24 that parents complained that bullying was not properly dealt with.
According to the source, Toronto police Insp. Dominic Sinopoli addressed parents and recommended their sons not wear their uniforms out in public for the time being because they may be targeted due to their association with the school.
The source said Sinopoli told parents that some students were being targeted while on transit.
Police also reportedly asked parents to talk to their sons to see if they are aware of other incidents that have not been reported.
Speaking outside the campus, area MPP Jill Andrew said her office has received numerous emails about the incidents at the school.
“Our office has been flooded with emails, we’ve had some calls from some parents, from anyone who saw this news story and thought ‘oh my goodness, why did this happen’,” the former teacher and youth worker said.
“We need to equip our students, our youth, our community with more education around consent. This is an example of gender-based violence, this is what things like rape culture and toxic masculinity, they create environments where this can happen.”
She said her office is open to anyone who wants to talk about the incident.
