Montreal art teacher Mario Perron caught selling students' work online: report

Administrators at a public school in suburban Montreal have launched an investigation into an art teacher accused of selling her students' artwork online for more than $100 each.

Mario Perron's questionable extracurricular activities were discovered Wednesday by a student at Westwood High School in St. Lazare who found a web store listing pictures he and others had drawn, CTV News reported. The student told the teacher about it, and from there it spread throughout the school, the agency reports.

One parent whose 12-year-old daughter Perron painted a “horrific portrait” on four different sites for 151 Canadian dollars (about $110) told CTV she has serious ethical concerns about the situation and is “absolutely disgusted” by Perron. Her child's photo can be purchased for $118 on a print, $55 on a T-shirt or $35 on an iPhone case, all of which she described to CTV as “unbelievable.”

“Is this teacher asking them to do certain types of projects so they can sell them?” said the parents. “Is he asking for these types of portraits to fit the market?”

Another parent said her 13-year-old son found a classmate's drawing for sale on Perron's website. He called the situation “very disturbing.”

“It's unbelievable that he felt he had the right to use these children's rights and their artwork for his own financial gratification, and to use it significantly,” he told CTV News.

As of Saturday afternoon, approximately 92 student portraits were still available on Perron's web store.

The Daily Beast could not reach school board officials Saturday. However, a board spokesperson told CTV News in an email Thursday that school officials are “aware of the situation and (are) taking these allegations very seriously.”