A physical education teacher with wandering hands could now find himself behind bars for sexually assaulting two school students‘a high school in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
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“There is a border that should not be crossed. Gestures simply don’t exist. [L’enseignant] interacts with adolescent girls and it is essential to protect their sexual integrity,” lamented Judge Éric Simard in sentencing Patrice Dumouchel last month.
The former physical education teacher at the Marcel-Landry high school was then found guilty of sexual assault on two of his students, at the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu courthouse.
Hand between breasts
Dumouchel, who described himself as a “very tactile” person at his trial, sometimes took one of them aside to talk to her, and he took the opportunity to put his hand on her tailbone.
Once, he picked her up from her class about a doctor’s note and while they were talking in the hallway, he put his hand between her breasts.
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“She then froze, in shock. Following this inappropriate touching, she felt attacked and avoided any rapprochement” with the teacher, said the judge.
Dumouchel grabbed another teenager by the front of her sweater, touching her breasts in the process. This created a lot of unease and anxiety in this withdrawn young girl, who had great difficulty asserting herself at the time.
Reasonable doubt
The 55-year-old teacher was acquitted of a dozen other charges, including sexual interference and sexual exploitation of two other students.
Among other things, he was accused of having made a high five (claps the hand) to a teenager before continuing his gesture by slapping her on the buttocks as well as being embarked on another girl, who was trying to recover a ball on the ground during a lesson.
For these events, however, the court was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that there was intent for sexual gratification.
“In the period we are currently living in, the gesture is surely inappropriate and [il] would have every interest in reviewing his behavior, ”said Judge Simard all the same.
The Crown prosecutor, Mr.e Martin Bourgeois, has announced his intention to seek a prison sentence. “We are talking about two victims and a teacher who had a position of authority,” he explained to the magistrate.
Patrice Dumouchel has been suspended by the high school since January 2019, after one of the four complainants reported him to a school psychoeducator. Sentencing submissions will be held next June.
Read on
Last August, The newspaper presented a profile of 56 Quebec school workers who have been charged or convicted in the past six years.
The list is long and has something to thrill parents.
“When a parent drives their child back to school, they leave them in a place they believe to be safe. It’s like a second family that you trust, because it contributes to the education of the most precious person in your eyes, “said Deborah Trent, director of the Center for victims of sexual assault in Montreal, in this report published in August.
If some choose this job to be surrounded by children, most teachers caught at fault act when the situation arises, say the experts.