art teacher

WI Art teacher and LBPSB sued for $1.4 million

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , ,

By Chelsey St-Pierre

The art teacher from Westwood Junior High who placed his students’ artwork online for sale along with the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) are being sued by parents for $1.4 million and the number keeps going up as more families continue to join the lawsuit. The LBPSB, the school’s administration and the art teacher, Mario Perron have all remained silent and unapologetic in the face of the accusations despite the incident having made international headlines.

Joel DeBellefeuille, the parent who originally launched the lawsuit, told The Suburban after the demand letter was sent, that his son along with other students were called down to the principal’s office to be questioned during school hours, while the administration continues to ignore parents’ demands for answers. “The school should not be questioning these kids without a parent present while on the doorstep of a lawsuit. They say that they can’t comment to parents but are systematically calling down students. They are scrambling trying to figure out what to do, but doing all the wrong things. They are completely shutting parents out, yet have the nerve to interrogate the children without a parent or guardian present. It’s insane.”

The artwork produced in Perron’s classroom was part of an assignment that he asked students to complete. The online sale of the items was discovered by students last week and reported to parents. DeBellefeuille immediately reached out to the school’s principal who refused to give him any information as to its intentions on how to remediate the situation. The school board also refused to respond. Upon receiving the demand letter, LBPSB’s legal advisor contacted DeBellefeuille to tell him that the file has been sent to their insurance company. “It’s so blatantly obvious what this guy did, and an apology would go a long way. No steps have been taken to appease parents,” he told The Suburban.

An online search conducted by The Suburban as well as by the parents’ legal counsel revealed that the artwork of 96 students was uploaded for sale with print-on-demand options for 31 different products, such as cups and t-shirts.

“The volume of items sold through this scheme is immense, totalling 2,976 items, constituting 2,976 distinct violations of intellectual property laws,” the demand letter sent by the students’ families’ lawyer reads.

Parents are also concerned about the confidentiality and safety of their students as the artwork produced was a style of portraits of themselves or their peers entitled “creepy portraits” and the names of the artists were placed online with their respective creations.

The school principal, Anna Haller, however, only mentioned her concern for the privacy of school staff in response to an e-mail sent by DeBellefeuille requesting her help with the matter prior to his decision to sue. “Thank you for your email. The matter is currently under investigation. All matters pertaining to LBPSB employees remain confidential” was the total extent of her e-mail to him. n

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WI art teacher sells his students’ work for own profit

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

By Chelsey St-Pierre

An art teacher at a public junior high school in Saint-Lazare placed his students’ artwork on his website as well as a U.S.-based public website for sale.The grade 8 art teacher, Mario Perron used the names of the students who produced the drawings in the titles which were displayed above their respective pieces of art on the site, all which could be found under a section entitled “student art” under his seller profile.

Perron has just over 1,700 works of art for sale on the U.S.-based site. He placed 96 student creations for sale with prices ranging from $94.00 — $190.00. “For this guy to feel like he has carte-blanche is extremely alarming,” said a parent named Dave (pseudonym used for this purpose of this article) who contacted The Suburban, on condition of anonymity in order to protect the identity of his minor child.”My teen came home from school telling me that his art teacher is selling students’ artwork online. This is invasive to the privacy of the students that he is teaching.”

The Suburban contacted the school’s administration as well as the school board that refused to comment except for the following, “The Lester B. Pearson school board (LBPSB) is aware of the situation and is taking these allegations very seriously. An investigation is underway so the school board cannot comment on this matter any further at this point,” LBPSB spokesperson Darren Becker told The Suburban.

Westwood Junior High School principal Anna Haller did not respond to The Suburban’s request for comment, however when a parent reached out, she responded with concern for the confidentiality pertaining to staff. “Thank you for your e-mail. This matter is currently under investigation. All matters pertaining to LBPSB employees remain confidential.”

“Mr. Perron did not take into consideration the children’s confidentiality when he posted and then attempted to sell their drawings online without the consent of the children. the parents or the school board. This is extremely troubling and concerning,” Dave explained.

The Suburban ran an online search test and it took less than 10 minutes to connect the dots between where Perron works and view the names of his students starting from the artwork sales site. On his Facebook profile, Perron is listed as a teacher for the Lester B. Pearson school board and links to the sale of his students’ artwork was also connected to his public profile. In his Bio link, it says he teaches at a West Island school. With a quick search of “West Island school’s staff lists and Mario Perron”, it was easy to locate Perron as a current staff member at Westwood Junior high school. n

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