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	School Board Apologizes for Cornwall Sex-abuse Cases By Dave Rogers Ottawa Citizen June 29, 2010 http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/School+board+apologizes+Cornwall+abuse+cases/3217212/story.html The Upper Canada District School Board issued an apology Tuesday for decades-old cases sexual abuse at a Cornwall high school, six months after a public inquiry by Justice Normand Glaude asked for it. David Thomas, the board’s director of education, said the board took some time to issue the apology because an unspecified number of victims and their families wanted to see what the board was doing to prevent future abuse. Thomas said the board has provided training to school principals and teachers so they can recognize vulnerable students and maintain an appropriate distance from them. He said teachers, school-bus drivers and school volunteers must all undergo extensive and repeated background checks. The $53-million inquiry said police, government, the Catholic Church and other institutions failed miserably to respond to decades of alleged and real child sexual abuse by Cornwall probation officers, clergy, teachers and others. The apology named three teachers who worked at Ecole Secondaire Catholique La Citadelle, which was operated by the former Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry County Board of Education during the 1960s for the Cornwall French-speaking community. It also named a school-bus driver who worked for the board.“Our board has continued to ask victims to come forward and we are continuing to support two victims with counselling,” Thomas said. “We are prepared to help those who did not get a high-school diploma and their children who were impacted negatively by this abuse. “The victims didn’t want to hear the word ‘sorry’ from institutions — they wanted to hear what they are doing about the abuse. We are clearly into the healing phase now and will help victims and their families to get high school diplomas.”
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