Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence which may be disturbing for some listeners and readers

Parents, students, elected officials, and concerned citizens gathered in front of the Centre de Services Scolaire de Montreal on May 19 to demand that the provincial government take immediate action after an investigative piece published by Le Devoir exposed allegations of sexual violence at Louise-Trichet High School in Montreal and Massey-Vanier High School-English (MVHS) in Cowansville.  

La voix des jeunes compte, a collective with the mandate to fight sexual violence in Quebec’s schools, coordinated the press conference after working to get a framework law adopted at the provincial level to prevent and properly address sexual violence in primary and secondary schools for the past five years. A framework prevention law was adopted by the provincial government in 2017, but only for CEGEPs and universities. Known as Bill 151, the law determines the elements that a school’s policy must set out, such as rules for student social or welcoming activities, safety measures, mandatory training, a complaint procedure and reception, referral, psychosocial and support services.

Ruba Ghazal, Quebec Solidaire Member of the National Assembly for Mercier, asked Minister of Education Bernard Drainville to immediately adopt the bill that she presented to the National Assembly back in April, which garnered the support of the Quebec Liberal Party and the Parti Quebecois. The proposed piece of legislation, known as Bill 397, would implement this framework law in all educational institutions, starting at the pre-school level. 

“It’s his responsibility, it’s our responsibly, as adults to protect children, to protect teenagers,” Ghazal expressed at the press conference. “When they go to school, it’s to learn, not to be aggressed. The only way to prevent these cases, these sexual aggressions, is to have a bill to prevent them. I hope that Mr. Drainville will listen to all of the victims, will listen to the parents, and will listen to all the opposition parties to adopt this law.” 

At the local level, Jennifer Hopkins, a parent of an alleged sexual assault victim that has been advocating for change ever since the allegations at MVHS came to light, she recently coordinated a book drive in her community to raise awareness around sexual violence, said that a framework law to prevent sexual violence in all schools is necessary as “parents and students are fed up” because they don’t know where to turn to for support. 

“It (the press conference) was to kind of show both the government, the Minister of Education, the communities, society at large, everyone, that this is happening in our schools. (…) They (parents and students) don’t know who to speak to. For myself, I feel like I’ve been screaming for two-and-a-half years without getting any assistance, help, anything,” Hopkins said in an interview with CIDI. 

Hopkins mentioned that those concerned aren’t asking for the provincial government to “re-invent the wheel” to implement the proposed law because it’s already laid out in Bill 151. 

“It (Bill 151) involves trauma response training, professors and people that work at the school have to be trained and update their training every year on how to deal with sexual violence, sexual misconduct, sexual abuse, when a student comes to you what to ask and what not to ask, the reporting structure, how to look at power dynamics within the school and how those affect sexual violence. (…) We are just asking for it to be implemented in the primary and secondary schools, where sexual violence is happening,” she said. 

Hopkins emphasized that children don’t have a voice to stick up for themselves when it comes to situations as complex as sexual violence, making the framework law that much more necessary. 

“They don’t have the know-how. A ten year-old isn’t reading policies and procedures and knowing who to talk to about what’s going on. So if anything, it’s needed more at the primary and secondary levels. (…) That’s what we need in the schools,” noted Hopkins. “I think it would benefit our community, our children, young adults, it would benefit the teachers and the administration because it would give them a clear framework on where to go and what to do when this stuff happens.”

While schools have procedures set in place under the “Safe School Policy and Procedures,” it’s not “this robust system in place where they can help deal with this,” according to Hopkins, and “you only have to look at what’s happened at MVHS, and other schools in the area, to see that it’s not working.” As someone who has been through the process in the past, she described her experience as “opaque at best.”

“This is sexual violence, this affects a person for the rest of their life. It can’t be treated like being pushed down in the playground for a toy. You can’t have the perpetrator say ‘I’m sorry for sexually assaulting you’ and then go back to class with that person. That traumatizes the victim again, and again, and again,” explained Hopkins.“When it keeps happening, they keep complaining, they keep going to the principal or the vice principal, and nothing is done, there’s another re-traumatization of what they’re going through, and what do parents do?”

Ever since the press conference took place, Hopkins said that she has been receiving messages from other parents actively seeking her help.

“I’ve been receiving a lot of messages via Facebook from people I don’t know, mothers that I don’t know in Montreal at various schools, saying ‘this happened to my daughter, this happened to my son, we’re dealing with this right now where do we go? What do we do? I don’t know what to speak to, the principal isn’t doing anything, we can’t get anyone to act.’ It breaks my heart because that’s where I was two-and-a-half years ago. There is a deep need for this (…) and the government needs to help this,” emphasized Hopkins. 

Anastasia Spanos, an MVHS parent that has been supporting the students that came forward with allegations of sexual assault that they experienced at the school, noted that the top priority of parents is the “safety our children.”

“So that means we have to have something that’s in place to not only protect the staff, but also the students. (…) We are talking about a year-and-a-half just at MVHS, where were the protocols? If the laws were there that we are asking for, which is better protocols in schools, better education for staff and students, what is consent and what is appropriate, someone that actually takes cares of the cases individually and does the appropriate steps to be done in order for both the victim and the person that committed the act can get help (…) this law would have prevented the ten cases that we have today,” said Spanos. 

Spanos said that while the law won’t necessarily stop sexual violence from happening within Quebec’s primary and secondary schools, it provides resources to staff and students to properly address these situations when experienced. 

“It’s not going to ‘catch it in the act’ but if it does happen the services are there to offer the students a place to go speak without being judged, without being prosecuted and putting the blame on them, and then have it investigated and dealt with in the proper manner. CEGEPs are dealing with it a lot better, universities are dealing with it a lot better, but primary and secondary don’t have that,” Spanos explained.

It’s not just MVHS, mentioned Spanos, there are other schools facing the same issue, making it necessary to implement the law as soon as as possible. 

“We need to put pressure on the government. (…) It’s a simple yes, it doesn’t take a big thing. Then we work on it and we find the staff to implement all of this. (…) Schools are the second homes to all of our children. We take, and we leave them, in the care of the schools for those eight hours, the buses and everything. It’s their responsibility to have it safe for them,” noted Spanos. 

Beyond the demand for the adoption of a framework law to prevent and address sexual violence at the primary and secondary level, Hopkins and Spanos are asking that Chairperson for the Eastern Townships School Board, Michael Murray, to resign. In an interview with Le Devoir published on May 18, Ghazal also expressed that Murray should step down. 

CIDI reached out to the Eastern Townships School Board for comment, but it declined as a result of ongoing investigations. When the allegations of sexual violence at MVHS were made public back in March, Murray expressed to CIDI that the school board is “extremely sensitive to how students feel” and that the board goes out of its way “to make it easy for students to express that they have some kind of discomfort or bad feeling about what’s happening.” According to Murray, the ETSB has a thorough protocol and resources set in place once a student makes a complaint. Moving forward, he urged parents and students that feel uncomfortable to speak to any adult within their school to launch the process. 

Listen to the full interview with Hopkins and Spanos below:

Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence which may be disturbing for some listeners and readers