A Calgary judge has approved payouts for more than 50 students who were abused by two former teachers at a local junior high school as the final step in a class-action lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed in 2024, named the Calgary Board of Education and the teachers at John Ware Junior High. It alleged Michael Gregory and Fred Archer sexually, physically and psychologically abused the students between 1988 and 2004.
On Wednesday, Calgary Court of King’s Bench Justice Michele Hollins accepted the payouts for the plaintiffs — who each fall into one of seven classes — ranging from a maximum of $422,000 to a minimum of $24,000.
Those funds will be paid to the victims by May 17.
The lawsuit alleged that school staff knew of the abuse and “failed to respond properly to the many disclosures” made by students against both Gregory and Archer.
Gregory taught at John Ware for 20 years, from 1986 to 2006.
He is accused of sexually abusing female students and physically abusing male students in various locations — including at school, at his rural acreage and during unofficial “scouting trips.”
The former teacher took his own life in 2021, days after Calgary police charged him with 17 counts of sexual assault and sexual exploitation against former students.
Archer worked at the school in the 1990s.
He is accused of sexually and physically abusing male students at John Ware School.
The 81-year-old faces new criminal charges alleging he sexually assaulted former students at the junior high school.
Archer previously served a three-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting former students at a different school.
The lawsuit alleged the two men worked together to assist each other in abusing children and, according to the lawyers for the plaintiffs, “provided cover for each other with parents and teachers.”
