St. Michael’s graduate disappointed with leadership amid police investigation

A saddened reunion

A former student of St. Michael’s College School says there was “universal disappointment” among alumni at a special meeting Tuesday evening, to discuss allegations of assault and sexual assault involving students.

About 400 graduates of the all-boys private school attended the closed-door meeting, which outlined the administration’s handling of the allegations and the subsequent police investigations.

“There was certainly a mood in the room that suggested we needed a reset the leadership. This is a display of failure of leadership at the school,” Dave Trafford told CTV News Toronto. He graduated from St. Michael’s College School in 1979.

The principal of St. Michael’s College School, Greg Reeves, has come under fire for not notifying police immediately about a video showing an alleged sexual assault. Reeves has admitted he became aware of the video on Nov. 12, but did not inform police until Nov. 14. He maintains that he took this course of action in order to conduct an internal investigation, speak with the victim, and conduct expulsion meetings.

“The reality was I was concerned about that boy. I didn’t know who he was, I didn’t know who the other people were in the video, I wasn’t even sure at that point where it took place and when it took place,” Reeves said at a news conference on Monday. “I made that decision in the best interest of that boy and there’s nothing else I can say.”

Police have said they became aware of the video after being contacted by the media.

“When we left this building as graduates, we were sent out into the world to be leaders and we took goodness, discipline and knowledge with us to do that. They failed on goodness, they failed on discipline and I would suggest they failed on knowledge,” Trafford said.

“There was disappointment among the alumni and there were guys there from classes from 1958 to 2016,” Trafford said. “(It was) universal disappointment.”  (more...)

St. Michael’s graduate disappointed with leadership amid police investigation

Related:

Alumni call for end to 'bully mentality' at all-boys school

I've known St. Mike's alumni through the Knights of Columbus, am myself a graduate of a Catholic school, and have many relatives who attended Catholic schools, including my son. I can affirm that when a Catholic school fails, the whole community suffers. The pain on these men's faces is something I know all too well.

BREAKING: The president and principal of a Toronto private school resign in wake of sex assault allegations https://t.co/bXo52gEWmD

— CTV News (@CTVNews) November 22, 2018