Parents file $1.5M lawsuit after Quebec teacher accused of selling students' artwork online

A group of parents hasfiled a lawsuit against a Montreal-areahigh school art teacher and hisschool board after students found their classroom artwork available for purchase on the teacher's personal website last month.

The parentsof 10 young students at Westwood Junior High School in Saint-Lazare, Que.,an off-island suburb west of Montreal, filed the lawsuit for $1.575 million, or $155,000 per plaintiff plus punitive damages, against the teacher, Mario Perron,and the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) for alleged copyright infringement.

Edith Liard,one of the parents represented inthe lawsuitfiled inQuebec's Superior Court Friday, said the incident turned her daughter off the idea of becoming an artist.

"My daughter loves art, always hasbeen into art, and this year after everything happened,she said to me, 'I don't think I'll do art next year,'" said Liard.

"I was surprised because she's always been artsy at home before school, and she actually picked Westwood because of their art program."

Joel DeBellefeuille, another parent represented in the lawsuit, says while the amount of money sought might seem outrageous, it represents thescale of intellectual property infringement that took place.

"We requested$5,000 per artwork that was infringed," he said, saying there were 31 pieces of plagiarized merchandise per student.

Statutory damages range from$500 to$20,000 per work under Canada's Copyright Act.

According to the lawsuit, Perron assigned his 96 students a project called "Creepy Portrait" in January, in which students drew a portrait of a classmate or themselves inspired by the style of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The students submitted their projects in February and were shocked to stumble upon their classroom artwork being soldafter finding their art teacher's website.

On it, the students found their "Creepy Portraits"available for purchase as prints as well as emblazonedon coffee mugs, T-shirts andcellphone cases with some items listed for as much as $174.

"Here we are in a digital age, where families andparents are there to scrutinize everything that [kids] arelooking at but who would have thought that it should have been the parents scrutinizing the teacher?"DeBellefeuillesaid.

WATCH|Quebec teacher allegedly selling students' artwork online:

Quebec teacher allegedly selling students' artwork online

7 months ago

Duration 1:38

Students from a school in Saint-Lazare, Que., discovered their work online after Googling their teacher's name and visiting his website. The Lester B. Pearson School Board says it's investigating.

In addition to the money, the lawsuit statesthe group of parents is asking for a written apology from Perron, the removal of the students' artwork from all websites and a report of any sales made in connection with the plagiarized works.

"It will teach them a lesson because they broke our trust. The teacher broke the trust of the parents to teach the students," said Liard.

Prior to filing the lawsuit, Liard and DeBellefeuille sayparents had sent theLBPSB a demand letter making similar requests. DeBellefeuille says it went unacknowledged.

The teacher and the school board now have two weeksto respond to the lawsuit.

In an email Sunday,the LBPSBtold CBC News it does not comment on internal investigations or human resources issues.

Last month, the school board said it wasinvestigating and was takingthe allegations seriously.

CBC was unable to reach out to the teacher as previous methods of contacting him were unavailable.The teacher did not respond to repeated requests for an interview last month.