“3 decades. 3 teachers. 1 school. And dozens of victims
Over a period spanning decades, three teachers at one Ottawa high school preyed on their teenage students. For the first time, some of the victims are speaking about the sexual abuse they endured.”
Between the 1970’s to 90’s students at a Ottawa school were victims of sexual abuse by three different teachers.
Sexual abuse shatters lives of victims. Students at Bell High School were subjected to years of sexual abuse by three different teachers.
“In Grade 11, Laurie Howat had a huge crush on one of the most popular guys at Ottawa’s Bell High School. They spent as much time together as possible, before school, after school and over lunch.“He and I were connected at the hip,” recalled Howat, now 31.Other girls were prettier and smarter, but he had picked her.“I was head over heels for him. It made me feel so unique and special that he’d seemed to have chosen me out of everyone.””
Making excuses that ‘it was a different time’ further traumatizes the victims.
“Howat’s mother had died of cancer a couple of years earlier, and the relationship provided the emotional stability she needed. Finally, she didn’t feel so alone. Often, their encounters would take place in the private office attached to the school’s band room. By the time Howat was 16, they were engaging in fondling, masturbation and oral sex on a daily basis.
“He was Tim Stanutz, her music teacher.”
As far as I can remember, sexual interference, sexual exploitation, sex with a minor and sexually abusing a child has never been ‘okay’? It is a criminal code charge. Predators cover their tracks, pick their victims and coerce their silence. Transferring the teacher only compounded the problem with more victims. Was there a willingness to turn a blind eye for the successes of the school band and basketball team, or was it just failure to recognize a sexual predator? Or is it that school administrators really did not know how to quietly deal with teachers who sexually abused students?
“On May 6, 2016, Peter Hamer was scrolling through the news when he came across a story about sexual assault allegations against a Bell High School music teacher in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He immediately felt sick to his stomach. Hamer, now 51, attended Bell in the 1980s, and had similar encounters at the hands of a different music teacher. Hamer wondered how lightning could have possibly struck twice. At the same time, he felt a jolt of guilt. “I know this is stupid, but I realize because of what I did, that put Stanutz in the school,” Hamer said.”
Little was done to protect the victims from the sexual abuse. Did anyone speak up at the time? In my own junior high school I remember the ‘creepy’ teachers who stared at girls in tight sweaters. Often the girls let each other know how to stay safe. No one said anything. I remained silent.
“Dozens of former students, men and women in their late 20s to late 50s, began sharing their stories of sexual abuse at Bell, raising questions about what exactly had gone on inside the west-end school, and how it had been allowed to continue for so long.”
Listening to the voices of the victims is extremely sad. Their confusion, anger, embarrassment, shame, guilt kept many of them silent. Sexual assault, abuse of power causes long term psychological trauma. As a result victims often have damaged relationships, unhealthy destructive behaviours and patterns for life such as alcoholism, drug addictions and suicide plague their stolen youth.
At first, Hamer found the band room a sanctuary of comfort and acceptance where he’d share lunch with his pals and their music teacher, Bob Clarke.Clarke acted like one of the guys, eating french fries and joking around. Sometimes he’d tell sexually explicit stories that the teenage boys thought were a bit weird, but funny.“He’d make comments about your body: ‘Oh, I can see your nipples through your shirt, you must be horny. Do you have an erection?’ It was the hugs, constant hugs. It was, ‘Oh, yeah, you dating her now? What do you do with her?’” Hamer said his teacher soon began making inappropriate advances.One time, on a bus trip, Clarke grabbed Hamer’s leg and asked if he could keep moving his hand toward the boy’s groin. That was just the beginning.In the music department’s back office — the same room where Howat and Stanutz would later meet — Clarke offered Hamer better marks if he would strip naked and let the teacher take photos. Hamer refused.”
Speaking up about your trauma of sexual assault is extremely difficult for men and women yet is can be empowering, takes courage and is part of reclaiming their voice. One mother heard rumors and spoke to the principal.
“At 84, Madeleine Glaus is still a feisty mother with a sharp mind and an iron determination to protect children — and not just her own. It was during a cottage weekend with her nieces in the mid-1970s that she first heard the rumours about the Bell High School coach’s propensity for touching the genitals of teenage boys. Her nieces talked about a young boy who was molested on a canoe trip. The details were extremely unsettling. She confronted her sons, by then attending Bell, to find out what they knew about Greenham. She quickly learned about Franz’s earlier encounter with the teacher. “Then I say, ‘I’m going to do something about this man,’” said Madeleine Glaus, who now lives in Montreal. “He doesn’t deserve to be around kids because he’s sick. So I went to see the principal.” She gave the principal at Bayshore one week to act.
Nothing was done to help the students.
With the current police investigation into another school, St. Michael’s College in Ontario, for sexual violence and bullying, hopefully other students will come forward about bullying and sexual abuse. It is important to seek out professional help. Until it happens to you or your child can the terrible long term impact of sexual abuse be fully understood. Perhaps the healing has begun for each of the many victims. That journey is an individual process for victims in reclaiming their past and creating a brighter future.
