A Grade 8 teacher employed at a Catholic school in Port Hope, Ont., is facing 18 charges for sex-related offences she allegedly committed against students, police say.
The Port Hope Police Service said this week the 40-year-old teacher at St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School was first arrested in late August after an investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving a youth victim who was a current student at the school.
She was initially charged with sexual assault and sexual interference in connection with that incident, police said in a news release Tuesday.
Further investigation identified three additional alleged victims who were previously students at the same school, according to police.
With assistance from Peterborough police’s technological crimes unit, police in Port Hope carried out several search warrants related to the ongoing investigation, and as a result, the woman was re-arrested on Sept. 4.
She was charged with 16 additional offences, including:
- Three counts of distributing sexually explicit material to a person under 16 years old.
- Seven counts of luring a person under 16 by means of telecommunication.
- Two counts of accessing child pornography.
- Two counts of invitation to sexual touching to a person under 16 years old.
- Two counts of making, printing, publishing or possessing child pornography for the purpose of publication.
The woman is currently being held for a bail hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice in Cobourg.
Police urged anyone who believes they were a victim of the woman, or anyone with information that could help investigators, to come forward.
‘Distressing and upsetting’ for students and families
Steven O’Sullivan, director of education at the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board, said Friday the teacher had been employed at the school since 2016.
After her initial arrest, the teacher was immediately put on administrative leave and prohibited from visiting board properties or interacting with students, O’Sullivan told CBC Radio’s Ontario Morning.
The board helped to facilitate police interviews with key witnesses and possible victims, he said.
O’Sullivan said the board is now focused on offering any necessary supports to students and communicating openly with families.
“It is certainly distressing and upsetting, for our students and for our parents,” he said.
“We really want to reassure our parents that safety and wellbeing of our students is always our top priority.”
O’Sullivan declined to discuss the teacher’s history citing the board’s policy of confidentiality for personnel matters, but he did say she was hired via the board’s established human resources processes.