VICE-PRINCIPAL WITH WATERLOO REGION DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD CHARGED WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT

I find myself somewhat torn in regards to this newspaper article from yesterday's Waterloo Region Record titled "Public school vice-principal charged with sexual assault". In the infamous Ron Archer case the school board had been receiving complaints from parents and children literally for many years. The Board responded with their "pass the trash" policy of simply transferring problem teachers, in this case a criminal teacher, from school to school. Finally when one of Ron Archer's victims turned 18 he went to the police and the whole scandal unravelled. The scandal in my opinion was the behaviour of the school board, principals and teachers' union all in enabling the criminal behaviour of Mr. Archer. Keep in mind these children were all of twelve and thirteen years old that he was victimizing.

In the current case the vice-principal is accused of sexual assault and sexual interference of a student between 2012 and 2014. Currently he is a vice-principal at Forest Heights Collegiate. Whether we can assume that his "victim" was therefore of high school age I do not know. What I do know is how badly the WRDSB mishandled the Archer case and others. They made all kinds of excuses and claimed they didn't know this or that and claimed they would handle things much more proactively and aggressively in the future. Whether one can assume that this case allegedly regarding an older student could be a case of consenual activity albeit with an adult in a position of authority, hence eliminating the defence of consent, I do not know. The Ron Archer case was extraordinarily nasty not only due to the ages of the students (multiple over many schools) but due to threats and even a weapon alleged and probably convicted for. Maybe this case is much less serious but still such that the Crown had to lay charges. Until further information is made available we simply do not know.