Ontario girl alleges highschool working coach sexually assaulted her as a teen in $3M lawsuit
An Uxbridge, Ont., girl has launched a multimillion-dollar lawsuit towards her former working coach and the Durham District Faculty Board, alleging she was subjected to years of sexual assault and abuse by the hands of a instructor.
The instructor, Edward LaRocque, denies the allegations, and the college board, which is positioned about 65 kilometres east of Toronto, denies any legal responsibility related to the allegations.
Now 25, Julia Kearley stated she feels it is the fitting time for her to talk out.
“I am at a spot the place I need accountability,” she instructed CBC Information. “I do not need to carry the disgrace anymore.”
Kearley has to date chosen to not go to police, so the matter has not been investigated and no legal prices have been laid. Not one of the allegations within the lawsuit have been confirmed in court docket.
An announcement of defence filed by LaRocque’s attorneys denies the allegations and asks that the lawsuit be dismissed. Lawyer Andrew Max instructed CBC Information in an e-mail that the “matter is earlier than the court docket and Mr. LaRocque might be responding to those allegations there.”
Additionally at concern is a separate, third-party declare from the college board filed towards the plaintiff’s mom, which the board says was launched by its insurer with out its data. It alleges she is partially accountable for any abuse by failing to guard her daughter “in accordance along with her parental/guardianship accountability” — one thing Kearley’s mom denies.
Based on a press release of declare, Kearley first encountered LaRocque in 2011 when she began attending Uxbridge Secondary Faculty in Grade 9. She was 14 on the time, whereas LaRocque, the coach of the college’s cross-country and monitor and area groups, was in his late 30s.
Kearley joined the cross-country workforce later that yr. The lawsuit alleges LaRocque quickly began grooming her.
“From the beginning, LaRocque complimented Julia and instructed her how gifted she was,” the assertion of declare reads. At LaRocque’s suggestion, based on the lawsuit, Kearley additionally joined the Better Uxbridge Highway Runners membership exterior of college — which led to her having one-on-one practices with LaRocque and him driving her to practices and competitions.
The lawsuit alleges that over a interval of months, LaRoque and Kearley spent an growing period of time collectively, and so they texted forwards and backwards. The lawsuit alleges the textual content messages initially associated to working however shortly changed into exchanges about different subjects.
“I actually actually thought, particularly Grade 9, Grade 10, that this was somebody who actually cared about me, and I actually cared about him,” Kearley stated in an interview.
Psychological well being struggles
By the point Kearley was in Grade 10, the assertion of declare alleges, LaRocque started isolating her from household and mates, in addition to making “feedback to Julia about her physique, sending her messages with footage of ladies in minimal clothes and telling Julia that the ladies within the pictures had good our bodies and that Julia ought to aspire to be like them.”
The lawsuit states that extra overt sexual abuse began taking place when Kearley was in Grade 11. On the time, she was beginning to obtain scholarship affords from faculties within the U.S. and Canada, however she needed to take a while off from working as a consequence of an damage.
“Julia expressed to LaRocque that she was struggling psychologically as a result of she was not working,” the lawsuit alleges in regards to the time interval round January 2014. “She instructed him she was having suicidal ideas and feeling very remoted.”
On the time, based on allegations contained within the court docket paperwork, LaRocque started telling Kearley that it appeared like she had been beforehand abused or assaulted and insisted she was repressing recollections of such an expertise.
He allegedly instructed her that he “beloved her like a father” and would assist her change into extra comfy round older males. That course of included the 2 “hugging” in mattress with out garments on to “mimic what the sexual abuse was like,” based on the lawsuit.
“Julia complied with LaRocque’s directions as a consequence of LaRocque’s place of belief, energy and authority over her as a faculty instructor and her coach,” the assertion of declare reads.
“Slowly type of strains blurred, and that was when the sexual assaults started,” Kearley instructed CBC Information.
Contact allegedly persevered till 2017
The lawsuit alleges LaRocque kissed Kearley for the primary time within the spring of 2014, and he first had intercourse along with her round Could of 2014 when she was 16 — her first time having intercourse with anybody.
Kearley’s attorneys allege LaRocque continued to repeatedly have intercourse along with her after that and “coerced Julia into sending bare and sexual photos and movies of herself to him through textual content message.”
The assertion of declare additionally alleges LaRocque would typically drive Kearley to his home in Ajax, Ont., the place they’d keep in a single day.
“Julia normally lied to her mother and father on these events and instructed them she was staying at her buddy’s home for the weekend,” the lawsuit reads.
Kearley instructed CBC Information that LaRocque tried to make what was taking place appear to be a “secret relationship” — one thing that left her feeling extraordinarily emotional and confused as a teen.
“He was very controlling — very controlling of my life,’ she stated.
“At that time, I am a baby … I do not know what to do about it.”
The lawsuit alleges LaRocque exerted management over Kearley for years. She left Uxbridge in 2015 to attend faculty in New York state, however the two remained in touch.
She first tried to get away from the state of affairs within the fall of 2015, based on the lawsuit, however was not capable of efficiently break off contact till 2017.
“It took a very long time to truly get out of it,” she instructed CBC Information.
“I used to be falling aside due to it. It was a very darkish time attempting to get away and beginning to notice how abusive it truly was.”
Lawsuit seeks damages from coach, faculty board
Kearley’s authorized declare seeks $2 million on the whole and aggravated damages, plus $1 million in particular damages, cut up between each LaRocque and the college board.
The Durham District Faculty Board stated in a press release that it first realized of the allegations when it was served with the assertion of declare and has since contacted Durham police and the Kids’s Assist Society.
The board additionally stated LaRocque has been “faraway from [his] duties” amidst an ongoing investigation.
“We aren’t conscious of any additional allegations involving different college students at the moment and encourage anybody with data to come back ahead to police,” the assertion reads.
“The Durham District Faculty Board takes it severely when an individual able of belief and authority allegedly abuses that belief.”
The board’s assertion of defence first denies that any abuse passed off — however continues to say that if it did, the board had no data of the alleged abuse and says it isn’t responsible for something LaRocque might have accomplished.
However a third-party declare filed on behalf of the college board says some accountability ought to lie with Kearley’s mom, alleging her “conduct fell beneath the usual of an affordable dad or mum/guardian within the circumstances.”
In a press release of defence, Kearley’s mom, Stacy, denied that allegation, saying she believed LaRocque’s relationship along with her daughter was acceptable for a instructor and pupil, or coach and athlete.
“In any respect materials occasions, Stacy acted and performed herself as an affordable and abnormal dad or mum/guardian with respect to [her daughter],” the assertion reads. “At no time did she fall beneath the usual of care of an affordable dad or mum/guardian.”
When requested in regards to the third-party proceedings, a spokesperson for the board stated its insurance coverage firm, the Ontario Faculty Boards’ Insurance coverage Trade, has carriage of the matter and initiated the declare with out the board’s data.
Spokesperson Robert Cerjanec stated the board has requested the insurance coverage firm to discontinue the declare towards Kearley’s mom. The insurance coverage firm didn’t reply to a request for remark.
“It takes braveness for victims of abuse to talk up and we really feel that this swimsuit by the insurance coverage firm might be a deterrent sooner or later for households coming ahead,” Cerjanec stated.
Repairing a relationship with working
Kearley instructed CBC Information she has not gone to police along with her allegations, although she will not be ruling out doing so sooner or later. She stated she needed some measure of accountability but in addition to be protected.
“It is scary. You hear loads of tales of victims coming ahead after which simply getting completely traumatized by the [criminal justice] system and I wasn’t in a spot emotionally, mentally the place I feel I may take that,” she stated.
“This feels proper for me proper now, and everybody’s course of is totally different.”
Carly Kalish, govt director of Sufferer Companies Toronto, echoed that sentiment.
“Folks want to come back ahead in their very own time, at their very own tempo, and our response should be with out assumption and with out judgment,” Kalish stated.
Whereas many issues in regards to the state of affairs have affected her, Kearley stated her relationship with working has been undeniably fractured.
When she first began coaching she adored lacing up her sneakers, fuelled by “a pure, harmless love for the game.”
“After which all through highschool it was one thing that was twisted. He used that in order that he may manipulate me,” she stated.
Kearley stated she was capable of begin repairing her relationship with the game by way of faculty, however the ups and downs of the method persist.
“I nonetheless really feel a ache of loss, prefer it’s one thing he took from me.”
