Almost one year after a video of a St. Michael’s College School student being sexually assaulted with a broomstick in a locker room prompted a high-profile police investigation and sweeping internal review, three students have pleaded guilty to sexual assault with a weapon and assault with a weapon.

One of the teens also pleaded guilty to making child pornography for filming a sexual assault on his cellphone.

Thursday’s guilty pleas mean that six of the seven students at the all-boys private school who were criminally charged have now resolved their cases without a trial.

“It was a really difficult day for all parties involved. What we heard in court is very difficult to hear,” said Rachel Lichtman, the lawyer for one of the teens who pleaded guilty.

The graphic details of two sexual assaults and one assault involving two victims in the fall of 2018 were read out by Crown prosecutor Erin McNamara in an agreed statement of facts at the brief hearing. All three incidents involved members of a football team at the school and all were filmed on a cellphone. Two of the videos were shared widely and one was deleted before it could be shared.

None of the students who were charged or the two victims, all in their early teens at the time of the offences, can be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

According to the agreed statement of facts, one student was victimized twice with a broomstick, first in September 2018 and again in October 2018.

During the September attack, the victim described being surrounded by a group of teens in the locker room chanting “ehhhhhh.” He was picked up by his arms and legs and swung around. He was held down and his pants were pulled down. He heard a chant of “get the broom” and was struck hard several times. A video of the incident went viral at the school, McNamara said.

No guilty pleas were entered Thursday in connection with the September assault.

In October, the same victim was in the locker room again and heard the same loud chanting, according to the agreed statement of facts. He tried to run but someone tripped him. He was held down, his pants were pulled down and he was sexually assaulted with the broomstick multiple times. When he got up he saw the group of teens gathered around one teen holding a cellphone. The teen with the phone asked the victim if he wanted to see the video. He said no and begged him to delete it, which the teen did.

McNamara said the Crown could not prove who used the broomstick to sexually assault the victim in this incident. The three teens in court Thursday pleaded not guilty to sexual assault with a weapon in connection with the October incident and denied they were the ones who used the broomstick to sexually assault the victim. However, they did plead guilty to the lesser included offence of assault with a weapon.

In November, another student came to the locker room on the evening after a big win by a football team to ask a friend for a ride home, according the agreed statement of facts.

The student heard one of the teens say: “get him” and he was grabbed and held down by a group of teens. One started filming the sexual assault on a cellphone, McNamara said. As the student struggled and yelled at them to stop, two teens tore at his clothing. He was sexually assaulted with a broomstick multiple times by three teens as the crowd around him screamed and yelled.

The video of the sexual assault was shared around the school, McNamara said. The three teens pleaded guilty to sexual assault with a weapon for this incident, and one pleaded guilty to making child pornography for filming it.

As the graphic details of the three incidents were read out Thursday, the teens sat together, heads bowed, on a bench with their backs to the public gallery in the courtroom. They all agreed the facts were “substantially correct.”

McNamara said that guilty pleas entered had been discussed with the two victims and their families, as well as with a judge and senior Crown attorney. She also noted that the families of the three teens were also present in the courtroom.

A sentencing hearing has been set for November, after several reports have been prepared. Ontario Court Judge Brian Weagant ordered, at the Crown’s request, that psychological, academic and risk assessment reports be made, as well as pre-sentencing reports. While no specific sentences for the teens were proposed Thursday, the Crown will be seeking a custodial sentence for at least one of the teens, according to Lichtman, his lawyer. She told the court she would be asking for a period of probation.

“The charges carry a maximum youth sentence of two years in custody, which would include a community supervision component,” said youth criminal defence lawyer Emma Rhodes, who is not involved in the case. “The minimum sentence available would be a reprimand, which is highly unlikely given the facts of the case. Other possible sentences could included a period of probation, or a deferred custody and supervision order. As young persons, they would not be put on the sex offender registry.”

Lichtman said the guilty pleas show the teens have taken responsibility for their actions. The victims will also be spared having to testify in these three cases. She did not comment on whether her client had anything to say to the two victims.

Lichtman said the case shows a need for education and institutional change to address this kind of “systemic abuse” happening at schools. “We need to ask ourselves where did we go wrong,” she said.

The police investigation prompted the administration of the grade 7-12 school of more than 1,000 students to launch an internal review of culture and policies. The review found that bullying is a “systemic issue” at the school, as it is at others across the country, but that “hazing” was not a prominent part of school culture. The football team was suspended last year and was reinstated with new safeguards this fall.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In a statement posted to its website Thursday, St. Mike’s said it wouldn’t be commenting on the guilty pleas. The statement said the school was praying for the victims and their families, and that it remained committed to implementing the recommendations in the internal review.

D’Arcy McKeown, a St. Mike’s alumnus who was the victim of a similar incident while playing football at McGill, said he hopes this can be “the start of a shift” in the conversation.

In August 2005 he was sexually assaulted by his teammates with a broomhandle while players watched and cheered at a football training camp. After it happened, he successfully pushed for a campus-wide ban on hazing.

“I think that the guilty pleas are a sign that the people who are committing these acts are finally starting to realize that they’re more than just hazing,” he said.

“The fact that the authorities are calling these acts what they are and not just hazing is incredibly important.”

McKeown only had positive experiences at St Michael’s College School, which he described as his “safe space. “ He credits the school for their response, calling it “incredibly impactful.”

Glen Canning, the father of Nova Scotia teen Rehtaeh Parsons, who’s now a Toronto-based advocate for sex assault victims, said the school is left with “a huge black eye.” Rehtaeh was 17 when she died by suicide in 2013, after she told her parents she had been sexually assaulted by four teens and bullied online

“I hope moving forward that they’ll maybe put more emphasis on character or people rather than scores and sports teams,” he said. He also hopes other school boards will be more proactive in talking to students about these issues.

“This is a leadership thing, how they were able to do something like this in a locker room of a high school is just beyond me,” he added. “This wasn’t some innocent hazing thing this was a brutal, violent sexual assault.”

Only one of the seven criminal cases involving the St. Mike’s students is still ongoing, with a next court date later this month. All seven students were expelled from the school and were released on bail the day of their arrests.

The three teens who entered guilty pleas Thursday continue to face several charges, including gang sexual assault. However, their remaining charges will likely be withdrawn at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing.

All charges against of one of the students charged in the November 2018 incident were withdrawn in August because the Crown said there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.

The cases against two other students, one charged in the November 2018 incident and one charged in the October 2018 incident, have also ended. However, according to the Ministry of the Attorney General, the outcomes require a judge’s order to be made public, as there were no reporters present in courtroom at the time the cases concluded.

Clarification - Oct. 4, 2019: The headlines on this article were edited from a previous version to make clear that the three teens were former St. Michael’s College School students. The teens were expelled from the school last year.