Nunavik teacher claims sex charges are false

MONTREAL — A rookie teacher at the Kativik School Board in Nunavik who faces two counts of sexual interference involving underaged girls after having worked in Nunavik for only two months,vehemently insists on his innocence.

Jean-Sébastien Beauchesne, 24, a teacher at Tasiujaq’s Ajagudak School, was arrested in early November and charged with touching two students under 14 “for sexual purposes.”

Beauchesne was suspended without pay from his teaching duties at the KSB until his trial, scheduled for March 30 in Kuujjuaq.

Beauchesne who has publicly maintained his innocence in several Southern media outlets, told Nunatsiaq News that he enjoyed being in Tasiujaq right up until the moment he was arrested.

He has always wanted to be a teacher and dreamed of teaching in the North or in Africa.

Living now in downtown Montreal, he said he’s worried about the future and frustrated by the lack of support he’s received from his peers.

His union doesn’t cover legal fees for teachers accused of impropriety in the classroom, so Beauchesne is now juggling jobs to pay legal fees and travel expenses related to his defense.

“It’s no joke,” Beauchesne said. “I feel as if I’m in a stranglehold.”

Beauchesne said he took a course in university on the legal issues surrounding youth and the teaching profession, but he said the course material couldn’t protect him against what he says are false accusations.

“We all learned these things, that accusations can happen,” Beachesne said. “But we can’t really protect ourselves against what anyone can say.”

Beauchesne’s lawyer, Jean Dury, has defended several other teachers against accusations of sexual abuse. Dury said cases such as Beauchesne’s are “very delicate” because both the alleged victims and the accused are vulnerable.

Dury said an accusation of sexual interference, even if unjustified, can ruin a teacher’s career.

“It can follow him his whole life,” Dury said. “He [Beauchesne] studied for seven years to be a teacher and now he has to deal with this.”

Following national media exposure of Beauchesne’s story, Dury said he has received several letters of support from other teachers who had been falsely accused of sexual abuse.

François Badin, the KSB’s personnel director, said an employee accused of sexual misconduct is often first investigated internally basis by the school board. During this period of investigation, an employee is relieved of his or her duties, but continues to receive a salary.

After the investigation is complete, administrators decide what action is appropriate.

“You’re not going to kill a fly with a cannon,” Badin said. “You have to evaluate the gravity of the incident.”

An employee facing an outside police investigation is also immediately suspended, with pay.

But if police decide to charge an employee, he or she is immediately suspended without pay until the case is decided. If a suspended employee is found innocent or acquitted, he or she is reinstated and receives the full back pay and benefits owed.

Badin said such cases are always “extremely difficult.”

He said the KSB tries to minimize the chances of such incidents occuring by examining every future employee’s references, although legal background checks are not automatically tun.

If Beauchense is acquitted of the charges, he will have the right to return to his position in Tasijuaq.

“It’s not as if he was treated any differently. The KSB doesn’t want to ruin any teacher’s career, but when accusations such as these surface, our first responsibility is to the students,” an official with the school board commented.

“Of course, in any school, it can happen that the kids don’t like the teacher or the parents don’t like the teacher, but then, on the other side, there are abuse cases that are brought to light too late. You can’t be too careful.”

Three other employees at the KSB are also on suspension in connection with other separate and unrelated cases.