Lawsuit against Montreal-area teacher accused of listing students’ art online for sale ‘discontinued’

Westwood Junior High School. (Source: Google Street View)

A lawsuit against a Montreal-area teacher accused of listing his students’ art for sale online without their knowledge is no longer proceeding.

The Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) said the copyright infringement lawsuit against teacher Mario Perron has been “discontinued.”

A press release from the school board issued Wednesday afternoon said after conducting an internal investigation, the teacher “had committed an error in good faith” by putting the students’ drawings online.

CTV News first reported on the allegations in February 2024 after parents said their kids came home from school shocked to see their art posted online without their knowledge.

They alleged that Perron, who taught at Westwood Junior High School in Saint-Lazare, an off-island suburb west of Montreal, had listed their drawings on items like coffee mugs, t-shirts and iPhone cases on various websites with a price tag. They claimed they learned about the listings when they searched the teacher’s name on Google.

The story made international headlines in publications like The New York Times and The Telegraph.

In the days following the allegations, multiple parents launched a civil lawsuit against Perron and Lester B. Pearson School Board seeking more than $1.5 million in moral and punitive damages for alleged intellectual property breaches. The number of plaintiffs had grown to 14 people, who also demanded a formal apology and for the art to be removed from the teacher’s website.

According to the school board’s release, Perron listed the art on his Pixels and Fine Arts America websites.

“He explained that the drawings had been put online solely and strictly as part of an educational activity aimed at learning digital photo editing techniques, which in the end never took place given the events recounted in the lawsuit,” the release stated.

The LBPSB said Perron never intended to sell the kids’ art.

“He explained that at the time the images were uploaded to the Pixels / Fine Arts America website, he had not noticed that the presets for marketing these images were activated. Consequently, it was without his knowledge that reproductions or products derived from his students’ drawings were offered for sale on his Pixels / Fine Art America page,” the release stated.

The operator of the websites told school officials that there were no sales of student drawings and that Perron “received no money in connection with these drawings.”

“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 school board added in the release.

Both parties declined to make any further comments.