A Toronto private school was sued over a student’s alleged sexual assault. The school’s name was kept secret until now. The school was called Parkdale Collegiate Institute (Parkdale).
Two of the school’s accusers told the media that “there were a couple of other students at those parties [that] were the age of my daughter,” which is the age of one of the accusers, the Toronto Star. The accusers are from the same private school that was sued a few weeks ago.
The school had nothing to do with sexual assault. Yet the accusers claim the school encouraged such behavior. The Star reports:
The lawsuit alleges that since 2003, when he was a student at the college, the school, at the direction of its principal, had provided “sexual favors” to male students in exchange for more favorable marks. The lawsuit also alleges that the school’s culture was hostile to women and that its actions violated Ontario’s sexual-harassment and anti-bullying policies. The lawsuit names the school, principal and the province in the civil suit filed Wednesday afternoon in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
The allegations are shocking enough.
But the lawsuit also includes the claim that the sex “was forced on the students and that they were manipulated into performing the acts,” even though the plaintiffs don’t remember the specific details of the alleged sex acts. A statement by the school’s lawyer is included:
The principal and vice-principal are alleged to have knowingly promoted sexual acts with consenting adult men at the school when the students knew or should have known the conduct would be unlawful or, if not unlawful, would violate the sexual-harassment policy and be in violation of the student code of conduct.
What do we make of all this?
The lawsuit is based on the belief that it’s been years since the alleged sexual assault has happened, and that the accused is now an adult, so they are free to make whatever sexual claims they want, and they are allowed to lie.
It’s called “plaintiff’s democracy” (an extreme version of democracy, though, which doesn’t protect the accused).
So what do we make of the lawsuit which has been written up in the Toronto Star, which has made headlines in Canada,
