A Canadian middle school teacher has been caught selling his students' art online.
Mario Perron, the art teacher at Montreal’s Westwood Junior High School, sells the artwork for $118 each on his website.
The students' work is listed as "creepy portrait art."
Perron also listed the work on other websites, including Fine Art America. On one website, he sold t-shirts for $55, coffee mugs for $41, and iPhone cases for $35.
A parent whose son's work was listed for sale posted on X about the situation and demanded answers from the school district. Imagine your 13 year-old son coming home from school today with a story that his art teacher is selling students' artwork online at $94 per drawing without their prior knowledge!? That is completely insane. @LBPSB What are you going to do about this? I'm sure I'm not the only…
— Joel DeBellefeuille (@DeBellefeuille_) February 7, 2024
"Imagine your 13-year-old son coming home from school today with a story that his art teacher is selling students' artwork online at $94 per drawing without their prior knowledge!? That is completely insane. @LBPSB What are you going to do about this? I'm sure I'm not the only parent that wants answers," parent Joel DeBellefeuille wrote.
The Guardian reports, "More than 90 works are still visible on the site, with the titles of many works – Julia’s Creepy Portrait, Charlotte’s Creepy Portrait – apparently referring to the names of students who created the art. As of Monday, the links to the art instead route to Perron’s paintings and the student art can no longer be purchased. Other social media accounts linked to Perron’s art have been taken down, including pages on Instagram and Facebook.
“I’m extremely disgusted with this person. It’s extremely, you know, it’s unbelievable,” Michael Bennett told CTV News after finding art created by both of his daughters listed for sale. “Is [Perron] asking for these types of portraits to be done so it meets the market? I’m not quite sure on that aspect. However, I am not impressed at all with this person. I’m not impressed with the school, or the school board … [My daughters] feel cheated.”
According to the report, the school district has said that an investigation is underway and that they are "aware of the situation" and "taking these allegations very seriously."
SCNR has contacted Perron for comment and will update this article if one is provided.
