Teacher, charged with sexual offences, commits suicide

[lightningandsnow]

The suicide of a Toronto high school teacher charged with sexual offences involving boys sparked an outpouring of grief and support.

Jarvis Collegiate teacher David Dewees lay on the tracks at High Park station as a train approached around 8 a.m. as horrified riders watched today.

Counsellors are expected to be at Jarvis Monday morning to deal with the grieving students and teachers.

Dewees, 32, who taught Latin and English at Jarvis since 2003, was charged Thursday with Internet luring and invitation to sexual touching at the Christian-based Ontario Pioneer Camp near Huntsville between July 2008 and July 2009.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2009/10/03/11273076.html

[peace13]

1. So sad.

What a sad story! They best make sure that the young men were telling the truth! Off to jail with them if this man was innocent!

[Winterblues]

2. I doubt very much he would kill himself if the charges were not true.

He was obviously wracked with guilt..

[tonysam]

3. Possibly, but not necessarily

False charges can ruin a teacher's career as well, and some cannot cope with it.

[lightningandsnow]

13. +1

[Downtown Hound]

4. You don't know that for certain

Just being falsely accused and having your life turned upside down and facing the possibility of a future as a registered sex offender and prison time could make somebody want to take their own life. Not saying he isn't guilty, just saying that his suicide alone is not proof of his guilt.

[Zywiec]

10. Right, because we know his name would be fine even if he were proven innocent.

He's ruined whether he was guilty or not.

Oh, and why would someone plead the 5th if they were innocent?

:shrug:

[dysfunctional press]

9. i don't think that "internet luring" is based on the testimony of others...

the evidence is usually there in black and white. or ones and zeroes.

[aikoaiko]

5. Why force others to "assist" with your suicide and make others watch your bloody suicide

I don't know if Dewees was guilty or not of the crimes, but he certainly didn't mind traumatizing other people with his final act.

[Brickbat]

7. +1. Suicide is bad enough, IMO, but lying on the tracks takes a special kind of selfish.

Someone's driving that train. And they can't fucking stop it. It may be comforting to the suicide, but goddamn that's a burden to lay on someone else to carry around for the rest of their lives.

[sybylla]

11. You presume people who commit suicide are right-thinking

Whether it's momentary insanity or long-term issues with mental health that lead people to commit suicide, those who take their lives are not thinking clearly. As someone who's experienced suicide by a close relative and researched it as a way to understand and cope, I can tell you that the act itself is often used as a tool - sometimes for revenge, sometimes for martyrdom, sometimes just because they want the whole world to know how badly they hurt inside. In these instances, those who commit suicide can't empathize with the trauma others experience from their act because they either think nothing is so bad as what they are experiencing or they think that trauma is somehow deserved.

No one wants to see this kind of thing happen. My guess is that this is why.

edited to add that I agree with Brickbat as well. Suicide is a terribly selfish act - no matter how "considerate" the person committing suicide is when they do it. But I hope we can recognize the underlying issues and empathize even to the slightest degree with a man who was clearly effed up inside.

[Soylent Brice]

6. see, the pope was right!! other religions do it to, so it's okay!!

:sarcasm:

just in case.

[Blue Diadem]

8. That is a strange situation. Newspaper reported wrong charges

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/705372#

Our law affords no protection from libel to the dead. So we will assume by his actions, and for the purpose of exploring this awful event, that Dewees was guilty as charged; that the Grade 10 English and Latin teacher and volunteer camp counsellor did indeed invite sexual touching – as opposed to actual touching – from boys, luring them on the Internet. Police said he'd been removed from his counselling post at the Christian-based Ontario Pioneer Camp in Port Sydney, Ont., after the emails surfaced.

He was charged on Thursday, out on $25,000 bail.

The Star, it must be acknowledged, got the charges wrong in a Friday digest item that said Dewees had been charged with sexually assaulting two 13-year-olds. There was no assault alleged by police. The distinction is important though it's doubtful – this too can never be ascertained – such an error (corrected) had much impact on Dewees' state of mind.

____________________

http://jonathanturley.org/2009/10/05/man-commits-suicide-after-newspaper-wrongly-says-he-was-charged-with-molestation-of-boys-then-issues-a-remarkably-callous-account-of-suicide/

Whatever David Dewees did or did not do, he was not accused of what The Toronto Star printed before he committed suicide by laying across railroad tracks: molestation of young boys. Yet, the newspaper (the largest in Canada) published a story on his death that can only be described as remarkably cold and callous.

In its publication today, the Star recounts how Dewees, a popular teacher at the Christian-based Ontario Pioneer Camp in Port Sydney, Ontario had “died an innocent man.” It then, however, writes the entire article with a mocking presumption of guilt. This is precisely why I have written and spoken against the rule that you “cannot defame the dead,” here.

[lightningandsnow]

12. Weird.

Regardless of whether or not he was guilty, the newspaper was out of line. As well, I know some students of his - they are devastated by this.

[tonysam]

14. The thing is newspapers often print names

of teachers accused of some kind of misconduct or negligence with students, in particular when it comes to civil lawsuits. Very seldom do the lawsuits have any merit at all; the plaintiffs are usually after a settlement with a district's insurance company, but that doesn't stop papers from printing names of teachers who supposedly did something wrong even if they didn't at all.

Yours truly was one such person named in a frivolous lawsuit which to date hasn't been resolved. My name was dragged through the mud because a newspaper saw fit to print my name along with another staff member's. Then I had to publicly deny allegations when my superintendent refused to say anything in my defense but in the defense of the other person because I was going through a phony termination hearing at the time (having nothing whatever to do with the lawsuit). That was totally unconscionable on the part of the superintendent.