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Charges against Calgary-area teachers should encourage more victims to come forward, police say
Recent allegations against Calgary-area teachers have prompted police to encourage other victims to come forward. Alesia Fieldberg reports. Police are expecting more victims to come forward after sexual assault charges were filed in two separate cases involving Calgary-area teachers.
One of the cases involves allegations of historical sex crimes, and the other happened just this week.
"It looks like there are going to be a few more victims," said Staff Sgt. Tom Hanson of the Calgary Police Service Sexual Assault Investigation Unit.
Timothy Bailey, a teacher at Springbank Community High School, faces charges of making sexually explicit material available to a child after a student came forward on January 21.
The 49-year-old served in the Canadian Army Reserve between 1992 and 2016 and completed two deployments to Bosnia.
Fred Henry Archer, a former teacher at John Ware Junior High School, now faces charges of sexually assaulting a child under the age of 16 a decade ago. Another class action lawsuit also accuses Archer, 80, and another former teacher, Michael Gregory, of sexually and physically abusing children at John Ware School between 1988 and 2004.
"The allegations are that over a period of 15 years, unfortunately, a large number of students were sexually abused by these two boys," said David Corrigan, of HMC lawyers.
Archer served time in prison for child sexual assault after a former Springbank High School student came forward in 2008, years after the abuse.
Gregory committed suicide after being charged.
Experts say child sex offenders are good at building trust. "Ninety-two per cent of child abuse cases involve someone in a position of authority and someone the child knows," said Karen Orser, executive director of the child and youth advocacy centre LUNA.
"It's very difficult when things like this happen. It's very unfortunate that people in positions of authority manipulate children for their own ends. Just know that there are people who can help, including us," said Corporal Gina Slaney of the Alberta RCMP. When victims contact police, they often encourage others to seek justice.
"They realize they were not alone in their victimization and that there were very serious predators out there," Hanson said.
Child advocates say children and parents should be aware of the warning signs and discuss them together.
"People in positions of trust often initiate or create opportunities for children to be alone or communicate with them," Orser said.
She added that other red flags include someone in a position of power giving someone special attention or refusing to give someone their attention and ignoring or belittling someone who is trying to solve their problems. Children's rights advocates say they need to know it's not their fault and that they won't get into trouble if they speak up.
Adults living with abuse in their lives should know that police always investigate allegations, no matter how long it's been.
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