James Cardinal McGuigan Catholic High School Incident

[Stefan]

I have been watching this story from the begining and I have the following to comment.

1) Why did the girl wait 1 full year of sexual harrassment

2) Why did school official quickly charge the students without a full interview or investigation

3) The school is known of its racial standing aganist ethnic backgrounds

4) How can the TCDSB make assumptions and let the 16 accused go to 16 different schools because only 1 per school can go so they dont see or talk to each other. How can I live like 10min away from school and end up going to a school 30+min away. City TV said that the closest school is 30min away

5) How can they charge them and then allow them to go to school

6) Yesterday's News had an angry mother say that one of the accusers was white and was let go, but all the black kids stayed

so here are all my pointers, the biggest question is that how can they find schools for 16 people by next week.

[BillD]

1. Perhaps she was scared.
2. The school didn't charge them.
5. Being charged doesn't make them guilty.
6. Why would the accuser be detained?

[Glen]

Why did the people who were abused 20 or 30 years ago wait? Embarrassment possibly. Ostracised by their friends and neighbours. Threats? The list goes on and on.

[Mouse]

I've been in Group, and you would be shocked to find what people keep to themselves, much to their own detriment.

[networkguy]

I have been watching this story from the begining and I have the following to comment.

1) Why did the girl wait 1 full year of sexual harrassment

Its not uncommon for victims of rape or sexual assault to never come forward, the shame and guilt they go through makes them think somehow it was their fault and so the don't want to tell anyone.

2) Why did school official quickly charge the students without a full interview or investigation

I believe the schools must turn matters like this over to the police at one, if anything criminal is alleged they have to report it to the police.

3) The school is known of its racial standing aganist ethnic backgrounds

What do you mean by this? How is it 'known'?

4) How can the TCDSB make assumptions and let the 16 accused go to 16 different schools because only 1 per school can go so they dont see or talk to each other. How can I live like 10min away from school and end up going to a school 30+min away. City TV said that the closest school is 30min away

Because this is an ongoing case, they need to make sure the kids don't talk to eachother, to collaborate and make up different stories about what happened. Making them go to seperate schools helps inforce this.

5) How can they charge them and then allow them to go to school

They are under house arrest which carries strict rules. Because the charges aren't capital crimes, such as murder, they don't have to incarcerate the accused and they can be allowed to go to school.

6) Yesterday's News had an angry mother say that one of the accusers was white and was let go, but all the black kids stayed

Not all the accused are black, and besides what difference does the colour of their skin make? There was nothing racial about the victim coming forward and naming her accusers.

so here are all my pointers, the biggest question is that how can they find schools for 16 people by next week.

They may not be able to find schools for all of them, but as far as I am concerned it doesn't really matter, they should have thought of the consequences before participating in the crime they are accused of.

NG

[jovin]

"3) The school is known of its racial standing aganist ethnic backgrounds"

What do you mean by that Stefan?

[Stefan]

the third point was not purely mine. It is stuff I heard on City TV. The reporter said that this school is known of racial standing. Not the school admin vs students but student vs student racial. The school is located in North York, so you have asian, south asian, black, middle easterns, eastern european. The list goes on

[networkguy]

Don't post stuff that is heresay then, if you can't explain what was meant by the statement then its not particularly usfeful is it?

NG

[Law]

Are you sure you have the story right? wasnt the girl being bullied not sexually harrassed?

and there were a group of black people who were acused of the offence and the parents say that the principle is racist and wanted to get rid of the black students anyway. thats why the white offenders were let off?

I think i read about it in the sun thursday .

ill look for it again but i dont think you have the facts straight.

[Walter]

There seems to be some major discrepancies.....

The students weren't handcuffed in front of the classmates. The fact was they were called out of their class.

A petition was started by a women to fire the "racist" principal and she admitted she didn't know the person named in the petition.

Students automatically accussed the police of harassment and being racist and showed little or no concern that the charges might be valid. Where do they get their values.

We won't know the facts for a while but of course this doesn't stop people from having opinions but these opinions are based on pre-conceived attitudes. If it looks like an elephant, if it feels like an elephant...........

[Walter]

If the tapes support the charges will the people hollering racist, etc. come out in public and apologize.....not bloody likely.


Sun, November 20, 2005
Attacks on tape: Police
Under fire from parents, cops allege school's video-surveillance captured sex assaults of teen

By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN

Sexual assaults on a teen at James Cardinal McGuigan Catholic school were captured on the school's state-of-the-art security video system, police alleged yesterday.

Some Toronto police officers fought back yesterday after charges of racism were levelled against the force by parents following the arrests of 16 suspects last week.

The accused are black and the alleged victim white.

The cops insisted that they did not improperly handle the suspects, as claimed, and that their allegations against the accused are well documented.

Detectives credit a video-surveillance system at the North York school with the speedy arrests of the young men last week.

WIDELY KNOWN?

"The school had a state-of-the-art camera system," one detective said. "It appears a lot of students may have known what was going on."

Police suspect the 16-year-old girl may have been assaulted by members of the group for as long as a year.

Officers speaking on the condition of anonymity alleged that among the images taped was of that a sex act in a classroom and of the girl being pulled into a classroom by suspects.

Detectives said one arrested teen has been charged a second time for allegedly returning to the school in violation of a court order.

Staff-Sgt. Chris Nolan said the investigation is continuing and there may be other arrests.

The teens face charges ranging from sexual assault to criminal harassment and forcible confinement. They have been released on bail and put under house arrest. They are scheduled to return to Finch Ave. court on Nov. 25.

Last Wednesday more than 150 parents, many yelling, showed up at a meeting at the school at Finch Ave. and Keele St. to discuss the arrests and how it was handled by police.

[Glen]

I saw one of the parents say that the police or school should have called them before any arrests were made. If the allegations prove to be true, the parents would be the last people I would call as they appear to have fallen down on the job as a parent.