A Toronto private school was sued over a student’s alleged sexual assault. The school’s name was kept secret until now.
This story was co-published with the National Post and Toronto Life. It was written by Jessica Dorman.
There’s a long history of public institutions keeping their names secret during sex-assault investigations.
In the most infamous case in Canadian history, the Catholic Church was sued for concealing a decades-long sex-abuse scandal involving clergy.
A Canadian institution that was sued — unsuccessfully — for concealing its sex-abuse scandal was another private school.
A decade ago, CBC.ca ran a story about a Toronto private school that was sued for concealing the sexual assault of a 16-year-old student by his teacher. In 2004, the student’s parents sued, alleging the school had failed to protect him against sexual abuse.
“We’d like to know who he was sexually assaulted by,” reads a statement of claim in the lawsuit against Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB).
Read the full story at CBC.ca
When the CBC published the story, it did not say that the school’s name was covered by the lawsuit. The school, Ryerson Catholic secondary school, did not respond to a request for comment. The school’s name is no longer available to the public.
The CBC story drew a lot of attention. This included the news that a major Canadian educational institution had had to defend itself when a student’s parents sued. The school claimed that, by not being forthcoming with details, it violated the student’s privacy interest in not being identified.
In the decades since the story was published at CBC, Ryerson Catholic School has gained a reputation for maintaining its name out of respect for the privacy of the students. In 2010, Ryerson Catholic School was named one of Canada’s top-performing Catholic schools by U.S. Catholic magazine, Liturgy.
“We are committed to protecting children’s privacy, and we follow the school’s policy on disclosing sexual assault cases,” says spokesperson Suzanne MacIntyre in an email