MONTREAL — A Montreal-area school board says it is no longer being targeted by a nearly $1.6-million lawsuit that had alleged student artwork was being sold online by a teacher without their knowledge.
Ten Montreal-area parents filed a lawsuit in March 2024 against the board and one of its teachers after discovering their children's classroom artwork available for sale as prints or on T-shirts, coffee mugs, bags and decor, with prices as high as US$113.
In a statement Wednesday, Lester B. Pearson School Board said it investigated the allegations and concluded that the teacher — identified in court documents as Mario Perron — made an honest mistake, adding that it imposed a disciplinary sanction against him.
"The school board and the teacher apologize for the situation experienced by the students and their parents, while reiterating that this was an error committed in good faith as part of an educational activity, with no ill intent," the board said in a statement.
The board says the teacher uploaded images of the students' artwork to his personal Pixels/Fine Arts America page in February 2024. It says the work was posted to the website for an educational activity on photo editing techniques, and the drawings were never intended for sale.
The board says the teacher failed to notice that a marketing template on the website he used had been activated, inadvertently adding price tags to the students' work without his knowledge. Some students noticed and told their parents.
The lawsuit alleged Perron had intended to profit personally from his students' work, but the board statement says that was inaccurate. "The teacher asserted that at no time did he intend to offer for sale any of his students' drawings or products derived from them," it said.
The Lester B. Pearson school board said the website confirmed that none of the drawings or other products were sold and that Perron did not receive any money.
"As soon as the teacher was notified ... he immediately took steps with this website to correct the situation and remove any student drawings or derived products that might have been offered for sale," the statement said.
The parents, who had been seeking $155,000 each plus punitive damages and an apology from Westwood Junior High School, have dropped the lawsuit.
The board did not specify what sanction the teacher received but said it was appropriate "considering in particular that he remains a teacher dedicated to the success and learning of his students."
Both sides agreed not to comment further on the matter as part of a confidentiality agreement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 3, 2025.
Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press
