A woman from Uxbridge, Ontario has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against her former running coach and the Durham District School Board, alleging she suffered years of sexual assault and abuse at the hands of a teacher.
The teacher, Edward LaRocque, denies the allegations, and the school board, located about 40 miles east of Toronto, denies any liability related to the allegations.
Julia Kearley, now 25, said she believes it is the right time for her to speak out.
“I’m at a point where I want accountability,” she told CBC News. “I don’t want to bear the shame anymore.”
Kearley has so far chosen not to go to the police, so the matter has not been investigated and no charges have been filed. None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been proven in court.
A defense statement filed by LaRocque’s attorneys denies the allegations and calls for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Attorney Andrew Max told CBC News in an email that “the matter is before the court and Mr. LaRocque will respond to these allegations there.”
Also at issue is a separate third-party lawsuit brought by the school board against the plaintiff’s mother, which the school board says was brought by her insurer without her knowledge. It is claimed she is partly responsible for any abuse because she failed to protect her daughter “in accordance with her parental/guardianship responsibilities” – something Kearley’s mother denies.
According to a lawsuit, Kearley first met LaRocque in 2011 when she began attending Uxbridge Secondary School in 9th grade. She was 14 at the time, while LaRocque, the coach of the school’s cross-country and track teams, was in his late 30s.
Kearley joined the cross-country team later that year. The lawsuit alleges that LaRocque soon began grooming her.
“Right from the start, LaRocque complimented Julia and told her how talented she was,” the lawsuit reads. At LaRocque’s suggestion, Kearley also joined the Greater Uxbridge Road Runners Club outside of school, according to the lawsuit — which resulted in her having one-to-one practice sessions with LaRocque and him driving her to practice sessions and competitions.
The lawsuit alleges that over a period of months, LaRoque and Kearley spent increasing amounts of time together, texting back and forth. The lawsuit alleges the text messages were originally related to running but quickly turned into exchanges about other topics.
“I really thought, especially in 9th and 10th grade, that this is someone who really cares about me, and I really care about him,” Kearley said in an interview.
Mental problems
By the time Kearley was in 10th grade, the lawsuit alleges, LaRocque began isolating her from family and friends and “making comments to Julia about her body, texting her with pictures of women in minimal clothing, and sending Julia that.” saying that the women in the photos had beautiful bodies and that Julia should strive to be like them.”
The lawsuit alleges that more overt sexual abuse took place when Kearley was in the 11th grade. At the time, she was receiving scholarship offers from schools in the United States and Canada, but had to take time off from running because of an injury.
“Julia has expressed to LaRocque that she was struggling mentally because she wasn’t running,” the lawsuit states, covering the period circa January 2014. “She has told him that she has suicidal thoughts and feels very isolated.”
According to the allegations contained in the court documents, LaRocque then began telling Kearley that it appeared she had been abused or assaulted before and insisted she was repressing memories of such an experience.
He reportedly told her that he “loved her like a father” and would help her feel more comfortable around older men. That trial included the two “hugging” in bed without clothes to “mimic what the sexual abuse was like,” according to the lawsuit.
“Julia followed LaRocque’s orders because of LaRocque’s position of trust, power and authority over her as a school teacher and her coach,” the lawsuit reads.
“Slowly, lines blurred, and that’s when the sexual assaults started,” Kearley told CBC News.
The contact is said to have existed until 2017
The lawsuit alleges that LaRocque first kissed Kearley in the spring of 2014 and that he first had sex with her in May 2014 when she was 16 – her first sex with someone.
Kearley’s attorneys allege that LaRocque continued to have sex with her regularly thereafter and “forced Julia to text him nude and sexually explicit pictures and videos of herself.”
The lawsuit also alleges that LaRocque would sometimes drive Kearley to his home in Ajax, Ontario, where they would stay the night.
“Julia usually lied to her parents on these occasions and told them she was staying at her friend’s for the weekend,” the lawsuit reads.
Kearley told CBC News that LaRocque tried to make what happened seem like a “secret relationship” — something that left her extremely emotional and confused as a teenager.
“He was very controlling — very controlling of my life,” she said.
“At this point, I’m a kid … I don’t know what to do about it.”
The lawsuit alleges that LaRocque exercised control of Kearley for years. She left Uxbridge in 2015 to attend college in upstate New York, but the two stayed in touch.
According to the lawsuit, she first tried to get out of the situation in autumn 2015, but was only able to successfully break off contact in 2017.
“It took me a long time to really get out of there,” she told CBC News.
“I broke down because of that. It was a really dark time trying to get away and realize how abusive it actually was.”
Lawsuit seeks damages from coach, school board
Kearley’s legal claim includes $2 million in general and aggravated damages and $1 million in special damages, which will be split between LaRocque and the school board.
The Durham District School Board said in a statement that it first learned of the allegations when the complaint was served on it and has since contacted Durham Police and the Children’s Aid Society.
The board also said LaRocque was “removed [his] duties” amid an ongoing investigation.
“We are currently not aware of any other allegations involving other students and encourage anyone with information to contact police,” the statement said.
“The Durham County School Board takes it seriously when an individual in a position of trust and authority allegedly abuses that trust.”
The board’s defense statement initially denies that any abuse took place — but goes on to say that if it had, the board had no knowledge of the alleged abuse and that it is not liable for anything LaRocque may have done.
However, a third-party lawsuit filed on behalf of the school board says some responsibility should rest with Kearley’s mother, claiming her “conduct fell below the standard of a reasonable parent/guardian in the circumstances.”
In a statement of defense, Kearley’s mother, Stacy, denied that claim and said she believed LaRocque’s relationship with her daughter was appropriate for a teacher and student or coach and athlete.
“Stacy acted and behaved as a sensible and ordinary parent/guardian in relation to at all important times [her daughter]”, the statement said. “At no point has she fallen below the standard of care of a reasonable parent/guardian.”
When asked about the third-party lawsuit, a spokesman for the board said its insurance company, the Ontario School Boards Insurance Exchange, took over the matter and filed the lawsuit without the board’s knowledge.
Spokesman Robert Cerjanec said the board has asked the insurance company to drop the lawsuit against Kearley’s mother. The insurance company did not respond to a request for comment.
“It takes courage for abuse victims to speak up, and we believe this lawsuit from the insurance company could act as a deterrent to families coming forward in the future,” Cerjanec said.
Fixing a relationship with running
Kearley told CBC News she didn’t go to the police with her allegations, although she doesn’t rule out doing so in the future. She said she wanted some level of accountability, but also protection.
“It is frightening. You hear a lot of stories from victims who come forward and then just get absolutely traumatized [criminal justice] System and I wasn’t in a place emotionally and mentally where I think I could take that,” she said.
“It just feels right to me, and every process is different.”
Carly Kalish, executive director of Victim Services Toronto, echoed this view.
“People must move forward in their own time and at their own pace, and our response must be without assumptions and without judgment,” Kalish said.
While many things about the situation affected her, Kearley said her relationship with running was undeniably fractured.
When she first started exercising, she loved to lace up her sneakers, fueled by “a pure, innocent love of the sport.”
“And then during high school it was something that was twisted. He used that to manipulate me,” she said.
Kearley said she was able to mend her relationship with the sport through college, but the ups and downs of the process linger.
“I still feel an ache of loss like it was something he took from me.”
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