By Laura Giroux
Seven students of St. Michael’s College School, a prestigious all-boys private school in Toronto, have been arrested with charges including assault, gang sexual assault, and sexual assault with a weapon in response to multiple incidences of hazing that occurred in the fall of 2018 on school grounds (Canadian Press 2018).
An investigation into allegations of sexual assault at the school was initiated by the Toronto Police’s sex crimes unit in November after videos involving gang sexual assault with a weapon were circulated through social media. The disturbing video consisted of a group of students assaulting another student with an object inside of a school locker room.
Police had originally been investigating eight incidents of alleged sexual assault at St. Michael’s. Investigations into five of these occurrences were halted after the determination that either a crime had not conclusively been committed, or the complainants were unwilling to proceed with the matter (Canadian Press 2018). The remaining three incidents resulted in the arrests of seven boys, all of whom were members of the football program at St. Michael’s. The students who have been arrested are in their young teens, thus cannot be named.
No faculty members have been arrested in the St. Michael’s scandal but the school’s two top officials, principal Greg Reeves and president Father Jefferson Thompson, have resigned following the public outrage at the vicious assaults (Hasham and Warren 2018). In response to the assaults, St. Michael’s has taken action to prevent sexual violence and hazing through their creation of a specialized review panel that will examine the school’s attitudes and policies regarding abuse (Hasham and Warren 2018). The school has also introduced a tip line for the use of students to raise any concerns and has cancelled their football program for next year (Canadian Press 2018).
The police have identified two victims in the three cases of sexual assault that resulted in arrests (Canadian Press 2018). The victims are receiving support, but with video recordings of at least one of the assaults still circulating the internet, the trauma will be ongoing for the victims. The video of the assault has been classified as child pornography; therefore, it is a criminal offence to continue to possess and share the video.
The deplorable instances of sexual assault committed by young football players at St. Michael’s highlight the dangers of hazing and the impossibility of consenting to acts of hazing. It is important to realize that consent is never a defence for hazing because hazing is by definition a non-consensual activity. Hazing is loosely defined as degrading acts of initiation that must be performed in order to gain membership to some group. It targets youth who are highly susceptible to peer-pressure. Since adherence to hazing is considered mandatory for joining a group, even an individual who expressly allows the degrading activities is incapable of consent because he or she feels forced to comply in order to join the desired group. Consent to hazing is not freely given; rather it is intensely pressured, and as such this cruel practice has no place in our society.
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