The student is seeking $600,000 in moral and punitive damages as well as loss of future income.
John Abbott College has been named in a lawsuit filed by a former student who was sexually assaulted in 2021 by the supervisor of a volunteer program located on the school’s campus and connected to a psychology course she was taking.
The student is seeking $600,000 in moral and punitive damages as well as loss of future income because, she claims, she had to drop out of school following the sexual assault and is not able to pursue the career she sought when she began studying at the college.
On Sept. 3, Boris Stanley Paredes, 61, of Île-Perrot, pleaded guilty to sexual assault at the Montreal courthouse. As part of his sentence, he will receive a conditional discharge if he follows the conditions he agreed to during three years of unsupervised probation. One condition is that he is required to carry out 240 hours of community service within the next 18 months.
The young woman is only identified by her initials in the lawsuit and a standard publication ban was placed on her identity in the criminal case.
According to the lawsuit, Paredes sexually assaulted the student when she was 17 and while she was taking a psychology course at John Abbott.
“By all appearances, defendant Paredes was an employee or subordinate of defendant John Abbott since 1999,” the lawsuit states, adding Paredes had an office on John Abbott’s campus, plus a phone number and email address attached to the school.
The lawsuit also states Paredes was an employee of the West Montreal Readaptation Centre based in Lachine. The lawyer who filed the lawsuit, Jeff Orenstein, wrote that John Abbott’s insurer replied to a letter stating that Paredes was not employed by the school.
Paredes was the supervisor of a volunteer program through which the student was able to work with a ‘buddy’ (an adult with Down syndrome, autism or other special needs) and write journal logs to be submitted for class. The volunteer ‘buddy’ program took place on campus in the Penfield section. The ‘buddies’ would be brought by car to the school campus. Students would be matched with a ‘buddy’ and they would be given assignments together, such as cleaning, putting up posters and going for walks,” the lawsuit states.
“Defendant Paredes and the plaintiff developed a friendly relationship and would often converse after the ‘buddies’ had left for the day. While defendant Paredes did not do anything overtly inappropriate, he would often comment on the plaintiff’s body and tell her that she was very beautiful. Defendant Paredes also stated that he knew how to give ‘pressure-point massages’ to relieve stress/anxiety and that he had performed this on other volunteers, as well as some of his special-needs clients.”
The former student claims Paredes gave her three pressure-point massages while she was seated in a chair and that they appeared to her to have been done professionally.
On the day she was sexually assaulted during November 2021, the plaintiff was upset over a family matter while she was inside Paredes’s office.
“Different than the other occasions, defendant Paredes locked his office door, dimmed the lights, put on some music, cleared off his desk and told the Plaintiff to lie down on her back. He began his ‘pressure-point massage’ on the plaintiff’s head, neck, arms and stomach,” the lawsuit states, adding he then proceeded to massage the student’s buttocks for 15 minutes and breasts for between 30 and 45 minutes.
“When he was done, defendant Paredes said to the plaintiff things like ‘I can tell that you’re a girl that can’t say no’ and ‘If anything else would have happened, you might not have been able to stop it.’ There is no doubt that defendant Paredes took advantage of his position of authority and sexually assaulted the plaintiff.”
In the weeks that followed, the student would only see Paredes while taking part in the volunteer program and while someone else was present. She did not contact the police to report what happened, but one of her friends informed the chair of the John Abbott College Sexual Assault Resource Team.
The chair met with the student for five hours and prepared a statement that was filed to the Montreal police in December 2021. A warrant for Parades’s arrest was issued on Oct. 14, 2022.
The chair also made arrangements for the student to see a psychiatrist, but according to the lawsuit she eventually dropped out of school and attempted suicide.
The lawsuit claims she has since taken on jobs like delivering pizzas and being a cashier at a grocery store, positions that pay much less than the career she was seeking when she registered with John Abbott.
The claims of responsibility made against John Abbott College and the readaptation centre have not been proven in a court of law.
In an email exchange, John Abbott College said the following about the lawsuit: “John Abbott College takes matters such as these very seriously and wants to ensure that all members of our community feel safe and are part of an environment that is free of sexual violence and harassment of any kind.
“The college has not been served with a lawsuit at the time of this statement. When we were made aware, in 2021, of what was at that time an alleged assault, the college Sexual Assault Resource Team (SART) swiftly moved into action to support the student in question. The individual the student identified as being responsible for the assault was the onsite educator with the West Montreal Readaptation Centre (WMRC). He was not employed by the college.
“The quick response and support of the student by the SART team resulted not only in her care, but also the immediate removal of the WMRC employee.”
A representative from the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, which the readaptation centre is a part of, wrote back to The Gazette saying: “In order not to harm the ongoing legal process, we will not comment on this matter.”