Employees of Saint-Laurent secondary school tried to denounce, in vain, the verbal and psychological abuse of Daniel Lacasse, a basketball coach accused of sexual exploitation on Thursday.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Anaë Bergeron, a former school worker and health professional at Saint-Laurent school from 2013 to 2016, claims to have witnessed many cases of inappropriate behavior by the coach.
“I tried to denounce the situation, but I ended up leaving the workplace because I myself was being bullied quite severely by Daniel Lacasse and the other coaches,” she says.
Three basketball coaches at Saint-Laurent high school, Daniel Lacasse, Robert Luu and Charles-Xavier Boislard, face charges of crimes of a sexual nature. In addition to these alleged crimes, the coaches allegedly engaged in other unacceptable behavior, two sources told The Press, which are added to those quoted on Thursday.
“What I want to denounce is the omerta of the management and the sports component of the school which protected [Daniel Lacasse]. Social workers, psychoeducators and teachers went to talk [à la direction], and it was not accepted. They were dismissed, ”says a teacher who preferred to keep her name silent for fear of reprisals, since she still works at Saint-Laurent school.
A few years ago, she herself had alerted management to the problematic actions of Mr. Lacasse, which she had witnessed. “I had mentioned the shouting, the insults, the lies, the parties with the students,” she lists.
For his part, M.me Bergeron noted numerous cases of abuse of power, verbal and psychological, in her reports, which she carefully kept.
In June 2014, a 15-year-old girl who was on the basketball team allegedly engaged in a same-sex relationship with another player on the team. “Daniel Lacasse demanded that she leave his girlfriend. If she didn’t leave, he was going to fire her from the team, ”she says straight away.
The student having refused, Daniel Lacasse would have presented himself to his family and would have announced to his parents that their daughter was a lesbian, she said. “It generated a lot of crises at home and it required me to do a lot of family interventions at that time,” recalls M.me Bergeron.
A few months later, in December 2014, another player, then aged 16, decided to go to her basketball tournament despite an “exceedingly difficult” family situation. “She was very shaken up,” said M.me Bergeron.
The teenager was not in top form during the game, and Daniel Lacasse would have shouted: “You look like a crazy bastard on the field! The youngster started crying. He would have taken her off the field and ignored her, she adds.
“Trail Life”
If there is a case that has particularly marked the school worker, it is that of Maria*. At the start of 2016, the 15-year-old student and basketball player was not doing well. In the previous months, she had injured her knee, hip and suffered a concussion. She was exhausted and regularly missed school. She frequently consulted M.me Bergeron.
Rumors swirled about her that she smoked cannabis. Her basketball coaches reportedly mentioned to other players that she was a bad influence. On January 29, 2016, Daniel Lacasse reportedly sent her a text message saying, “You better stop leading a slutty life. »
“She was sad, she was crying in my office,” recalls Mme Bergeron, who noted the message verbatim in his archives. The student decided to file a complaint against Daniel Lacasse.
Mme Bergeron asked other players if they were also ready to lodge a complaint with management. Nobody dared to do it.
[Daniel Lacasse] had such immense power over these young people, by dangling the promise of being able to play in major universities, that they were extremely afraid to denounce it.
Anaë Bergeron, former school worker and health professional at Saint-Laurent School
Maria went to meet Annik Bissonnette, then deputy director of the establishment. “She told him the details of all the events that had happened and showed him the screenshot of the text message,” Ms.me Bergeron. The director would then have taken a photo of the text message in question.
In the weeks that followed, Mr.me Bergeron was met by the principal of the secondary school at the time, Patrice Brisebois. “He was shouting and insulting me. He told me that if I had worked for the [commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys], he would have fired me immediately, because I had denounced what Daniel had done to [Maria]. I got yelled at like rotten fish,” she says. Mr. Brisebois would also have asked him to make an act of reparation for Daniel Lacasse.
After this meeting, all the coaches ignored her. “Daniel would stare at me with his arms crossed when he saw me,” she said. Seeing that the situation was not improving, Mr.me Bergeron decided to leave the establishment five months later, in September 2016.
“It’s very ugly, this story”
After his departure, the “climate of terror” persisted, maintains the teacher still in post to whom The Press talked. “He was more powerful than the director. He didn’t have the title, but he was the one who decided everything in the school,” she says.
The woman is upset by the arrests of the past few days.
We closed our eyes and fed vulnerable young girls in exchange for a banner and [de l’argent] what these tournaments yielded. This is the raw and dirty truth of the whole history of women’s basketball in Saint-Laurent.
Teacher at Saint-Laurent secondary school
The atmosphere has been heavy at the secondary school since the arrest, says the teacher. “There are a lot of people, including me, who haven’t slept much this week. It’s very ugly, this story, ”she concludes.
Following our interview requests, the Marguerite-Bourgeoys school service center contented itself with indicating that “no staff member came to file a complaint with the school administration concerning the actions of the three people in question, going back as far as 2010”.
“I confirm that no member of the school administration has intimidated or prevented members of staff from denouncing behavior within the establishment,” he added.
The former director of the establishment, Patrice Brisebois, did not respond to our interview requests.
Mr. Boislard was released on Thursday after pledging to abide by several conditions. Daniel Lacasse and Robert Luu, who remain detained, appeared briefly before Judge Silvie Kovacevich on Friday afternoon at the Montreal courthouse. Daniel Lacasse’s release inquest will take place on Thursday, February 10, while that of Robert Luu will be held on Tuesday, February 8.
The police invite any victim or witness of sexual acts committed by the accused to contact its Sexual Assault Section at 514 280-8502 or to go to a neighborhood police station.
* The student’s first name has been changed to preserve their anonymity.
With the collaboration of Isabelle Ducas, Daniel Renaud and Henri Ouellette-Vézina, The Press