It is alleged that there was a cult-like bonding between Quest participants and Quest teachers. The Quest program was shut down in 1987.
The genesis of the prosecution of former teacher Tom Ellison was a simple twist of a fate — a chance meeting of two former Prince of Wales students at a Boxing Day dinner party in 1992.
The final woman to testify against Tom Ellison says she was coerced into a sexual encounter on his boat in 1981 while other Quest students were on an overnight hike.
Quest trial serves up salacious melodrama, but fails to address the accountability of authorities who kept quiet.
It began as a pioneering program for hand-picked high-school students on the city’s affluent west side, allowing them to step outside their classroom routine and challenge themselves in the outdoors. By the time its 14-year run ended in 1987, however, the once-lauded Quest program was awash in a sea of rumours over sexual relations between numerous female teenage students and their good-looking male teachers, looked on as “gods” by many of the young women.
Two more former Vancouver teachers are being investigated in connection with a controversial outdoor education program led by Tom Ellison, another former teacher that The Vancouver Sun revealed Friday is charged with sexual misconduct involving teenage female students. The B.C. College of Teachers refused to provide details but confirmed that Dean Hull and Stan Callegari are being investigated for their conduct while teachers with the Quest program at Prince of Wales secondary school in the 1970s and 1980s. Both were dismissed from teaching positions in recent years.
Two more former Vancouver teachers are being investigated in connection with a controversial outdoor education program led by Tom Ellison, another former teacher that The Vancouver Sun revealed Friday is charged with sexual misconduct involving teenage female students. The B.C. College of Teachers refused to provide details but confirmed that Dean Hull and Stan Callegari are being investigated for their conduct while teachers with the Quest program at Prince of Wales secondary school in the 1970s and 1980s. Both were dismissed from teaching positions in recent years.
A former Vancouver teacher is facing trial next month on eight charges of gross indecency and indecent assault involving six teenaged female students that allegedly took place more than two decades ago. Tom Leslie Ellison was initially charged in June 2004 for offences that allegedly took place while he was a teacher at Prince of Wales secondary school on Vancouver’s west side in the 1970s and 1980s. Vancouver School Board chairman Ken Denike said Wednesday that Ellison was the senior teacher involved with the Quest outdoor program, which took kids on adventure trips throughout B.C.