David Boyce, 56, the high profile and always flamboyant drama teacher from R.D. Parker Collegiate, was charged March 24 with sexual exploitation of a female student and is free on a recognizance of bail. He is to appear in provincial court in Thompson May 25. He voluntarily resigned from his teaching job with the School District of Mystery Lake March 29 and is prohibited from being on school district property.
RCMP confirmed publicly Boyce was charged 11 days after the event. Sgt. Line Karpish, the province's senior RCMP media spokesperson with "D" Division in Winnipeg, said April 3 that on March 22 the RCMP's "Thompson detachment received a complaint from the School District of Mystery Lake advising of suspected inappropriate behaviour between a teacher at the R.D. Parker Collegiate and a teenage female student."
Boyce has been charged under the sexual exploitation of a young person section of the Criminal Code, which says, "No one in a position of trust or authority over a 16 or 17 year old or upon whom the young person is dependent, can touch any part of the body of the young person for a sexual purpose or invite that young person to touch himself/herself or them for a sexual purpose. The penalty for this offence is a mandatory minimum period of imprisonment of up to a maximum of 10 years."
The sexual exploitation section of the Criminal Code is a so-called "hybrid offence," meaning the Crown can elect to proceed by the less serious summary conviction procedure or the more serious indictable offence route.
A summary conviction sentence upon conviction ranges from a minimum penalty of 90 days in jail to a maximum penalty of 18 months in a provincial reformatory.
Sentences upon conviction where the Crown proceeds by indictment range from a minimum of one year to a maximum of 10 years in a federal penitentiary.
The federal Department of Justice lists as examples of such persons in positions of trust or authority "a teacher, religious leader, baby-sitter or doctor."
Whether a relationship is considered to be exploitative, the Department of Justice says, for "the 16 or 17 year old will depend upon the nature and circumstances of the relationship, e.g., the age of the young person, the age difference between the young person and their partner, how the relationship developed and how the partner may have controlled or influenced the young person. As well, 16 and 17 year olds cannot consent to sexual activity that involves prostitution or pornography."
Karpish said Boyce was released after his arrest "on a recognizance with strict conditions" and the "investigation continues."
Angele Bartlett, acting superintendent of the School District of Mystery Lake, sent the Thompson Citizen an e-mail April 2 at 6:25 p.m., saying, "Certain allegations were brought to the attention of school district personnel. At such time an investigation was conducted and Mr. Boyce was placed on leave pending the outcome. During the course of the investigation Mr. Boyce voluntarily tendered his resignation. Therefore, he is no longer an employee of the School District of Mystery Lake and is not allowed on any School District property. The board of trustees fully supports the course of action taken by school district personnel in regards to this matter."
Boyce has not responded as of yet to an e-mail request for an interview from the Thompson Citizen sent to him March 30. He did, however, post on his Facebook page March 29; "It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I resigned my teaching position and am now planning a return to my spiritual home of Prince Rupert at the end of June."
Boyce had been employed as a drama teacher at R.D. Parker Collegiate with the School District of Mystery Lake since September 2008. Boyce is separated from his wife and has an adult daughter.
Boyce graduated from Bonnie Doon Composite High School in Edmonton in 1973. According to his Facebook page, he graduated from the University of Winnipeg and University of Victoria in 1983.
At R.D. Parker, his students for community theatre groups like Thompson Playhouse particularly noted Boyce for his theatre tech training and the set building. Boyce was also a prominent participant in the annual Old Fashioned Christmas Concert, including playing the Grinch in the inaugural version in 2009.
Among the major plays staged over the last four years by R.D. Parker Trojan Theatre and northernDRAGON productions, formed later by Boyce and some students, were Baraboo: The Last Show on Earth; The Diary of Anne Frank; Rashomon, a murder mystery based on the 1950 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, which in turn is based on a 1915 short story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa; Melody, the story of a young girl living at the North Pacific Cannery, a salmon cannery, who loses her mentor and best friend, a musician and teacher who fostered her talents.
northernDRAGON productions is the latest of a series of theatre companies Boyce has been involved with over the years, starting with an improvisational musical theatre company in Winnipeg and followed by a non-profit co-op theatre company that ran for three years in Prince Rupert, B.C. in the 1990s.
Last May, Boyce orchestrated the first-ever Manitoba Northern Schools One-Act Play Festival, sponsored by Vale's Manitoba Operations and hosted by R.D. Parker Collegiate with drama students from Margaret Barbour Collegiate Institute in The Pas and Gillam School also participating in workshops put on by Mike Peterson, a puppeteer who worked with Jim Henson of Sesame Street fame, actress and producer Rebecca Johnson, and B.C.-based theatre artistic director Robert Garfat.
