Charges against Calgary-area teachers expected to encourage more victims to come forward: police

Recent charges against teachers in the Calgary area have police encouraging other victims to come forward. Alesia Fieldberg reports.

Police expect more victims to come forward after sex offence charges were laid in two separate cases involving Calgary-area teachers.

One case involves allegations of historic sex crimes, and the other was just this week.

“It looks like there’s going to be several more victims coming forward,” said Staff Sgt. Tom Hanson with the Calgary police sexual assault investigative unit.

Springbank Community High School teacher Timothy Bailey faces charges including making sexually explicit material available to a child, after a student came forward on Jan. 21.

The 49 year old was in the Canadian Army Reserves between 1992 and 2016 and served two deployments in Bosnia.

Former John Ware Junior High School teacher Fred Henry Archer is now facing charges including sexual assault of a child under the age of 16 from decades ago.

A separate class-action lawsuit also accuses 80-year-old Archer 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 the course of 15 years, unfortunately, a great number of students were sexually abused by these two fellas,” said David Corrigan, with HMC Lawyers.

Archer served jail time for child sex assault after a former Springbank Middle School student came forward in 2008, years after the abuse.

Gregory died by suicide after he was charged.

Experts say child sex offenders are skilled at building trust.

“Ninety-two per cent of cases of child abuse involve somebody in a position of power authority and someone who the child knows,” said Karen Orser, the CEO of LUNA Child and Youth Advocacy Centre.

“It’s very hard when things like this do happen. It’s very unfortunate that people in positions of power manipulate children for their own gains. Just know there are people out there that can help them, including us.,” Cpl. Gina Slaney with Alberta RCMP said.

When victims contact police, it often encourages others to seek justice as well.

“Realizing that they weren’t alone in their victimization and there has been some very serious predators hiding,” Hanson said.

Advocates say children and parents should be aware of warning signs and discuss them together.

“People in trusted positions of power frequently initiating or creating opportunities to be alone with children or in communication with children,” Orser said.

She adds that other red flags are if someone in a position of power is giving someone extra attention or withholding attention and brushing off or belittling someone trying to set boundaries.

Advocates say children need to know it’s not their fault and they won’t be in trouble for coming forward.

Adults who are living with abuse in their should know police always investigate the allegations no matter how long ago they may have happened.