Class action launched against ballet school, former teacher

A class-action lawsuit against a prominent ballet school and a former teacher, who is alleged to have taken intimate photos of students and offered them for sale online, has been launched on behalf of former students by Toronto lawyer Margaret Waddell a class-action lawyer and principal of Waddell Phillips Professional Corporation.

A statement of claim was filed in April in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on behalf of all former students who attended the school between 1987 and 2015 who were allegedly photographed in private by the man, Waddell says. 

The suit alleges a former teacher, considered the school’s unofficial photographer, took pictures of students posed nude and in various states of undress, thus allegedly committing “the torts of sexual assault, sexual exploitation and sexual violence.” The suit alleges the teacher had thousands of photographs of the students.

In the claim, the former teacher is also accused of selling the photos online without consent.

Seeking $85M

The claim, which is seeking $85 million in damages from the man, alleges he breached his fiduciary duty to the students, committed a breach of confidence and a breach of trust, intruded upon the seclusion of the students, invaded their privacy, and committed the tort of public disclosure of private facts. The class is represented by a former student of the ballet school who was the subject of one of these private photo shoots, Waddell says.

The statement of claim also seeks an order that the man disclose all profits from the alleged sale of the photos and disgorgement of those profits to the student class. Further orders sought include a permanent injunction preventing the man from selling any images of the students and that he “identify any and all locations where he sold (or attempted to sell), shared, published, distributed or in any way disseminated images” of the student class, states the claim.

The claim against the ballet school for $100 million in damages seeks a declaration that it is “vicarious liability for all the wrongful acts vis a vis [the student class] and liable for all the injuries and damages suffered by them.”

The suit seeks a further declaration that the ballet was allegedly “negligent in the operation, management, administration, supervision and control” of the school and “in particular, through its negligent employment, management, training and supervision” of the teacher.

The statement of claim notes the teacher was employed by the ballet for 25 years and alleges it “owed a duty of care to nurture their students toward a positive career path, to educate and encourage their development, and above all else to protect them and provide them with a safe environment.”

Intimate photographs

“All these duties were violated when (the man) coerced and compelled many of the Ballet’s students into undressing and posing nude or semi-nude for intimate photographs, causing them profound humiliation and fear of imminent physical and sexual violation,” the statement of claim alleges.

The claim alleges the man “subsequently sold and distributed these intimate photographs without the students’ knowledge or consent, although they had been taken in circumstances imparting an obligation on [the man’s] part to keep the images confidential.”

Neither the school nor the man has filed a statement of defence to the claims which have to yet to be tested in court.

“The law in this area, particularly with the alleged non-consensual distribution of the images, is really in its infancy in Canada,” Waddell says. “Our courts only just recently confirmed there is an independent tort called intrusion upon seclusion and it’s compensable.”

The next steps involve an application for funding, and scheduling the motion for certification for 2018, she says.

Waddell says anyone who feels they were victimized and haven’t yet come forward can contact her confidentially through a portal on her firm’s website.