A Toronto teacher has had his licence revoked after he pleaded no contest to allegations that he sexually abused a student and engaged in sexual misconduct and inappropriate sexualized conversation with others.
David Field, formerly of Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, was originally charged with sexual assault in 2020 when he was 56 years old.
However, those criminal charges were stayed in 2022.
“(The Ontario College of Teachers) is the appropriate forum to address the behaviour,” said a Crown at the time, according to Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) disciplinary documents.
The OCT’s disciplinary panel heard how Field allegedly made sexual comments to more than one female student and took another to the movies before kissing her on the lips.
The panel heard the initial complaints stem from the 2008-2009 school year when Field allegedly began occasionally touching one female student in various ways, starting with arms, back and shoulders, before it became more frequent.
Then Field and the female student exchanged personal cellphone numbers, hearing documents explain.
Text conversations were initially about school before they eventually escalated to a sexual nature, documents go on to allege.
He allegedly began by asking if the girl was a virgin.
When she responded yes, he was said to have replied, “We’ll have to take care of that.” Then he stated, “if only you were 10 years older” and “I was 10 years younger”, according to documents.
He proceeded to have the student at his home for paid yard work, before they attended dinner, exhibits and the movies together, the panel heard.
After the movie, during the 2009-2010 year, he allegedly kissed her.
Following that, the pair stopped texting one another.
“(The student) experienced adverse emotional and psychological effects as a result,” the document reads.
During the following year, Field allegedly said to another female student, “Why don’t you smile more?” and then, “I’m going to make you smile more.” He then allegedly said, “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” while making a gesture referring to their underwear.
Documents claim he then advised the girl to do her project on a couple “making out” the entire day, as a class group assignment.
The panel then heard how he told the student while she was kneeling at a friend’s desk that “I always knew you would look good on your knees” and then at another point that he forgot how “hot” her mother was.
The panel places great weight on the fact that Field did not contest that his conduct amounted to sexual misconduct, the document states, concluding the panel finds his conduct amounted to sexual misconduct.
In the case of the final student, whose complaints date back to between 2015 and 2018, the panel heard how Field allegedly gave her special privileges when he allowed her to use his classroom printer instead of the one in the library, massaged her shoulders and asked her about her dating life.
Further claims suggest he added that she was “too good” for the boys in the school, that she looked “cute and pretty” and suggested they should “go for drinks” after she graduated.
Field, who was stripped of his certificate of qualifications and his registration with the college on Jan. 29, received his Bachelor of Fine Art in Nova Scotia in 1995.
He worked at Rosedale Heights since 2004, but had previously worked at Don Mills Collegiate and Georges Vanier Secondary.
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