| Selwyn House School | |
| "Veritas", translating to 'Truth' | |
| Address | |
| 95 chemin Côte St-Antoine Westmount, Quebec, H3Y 2H8, Canada |
|
| Information | |
| School board | QAIS |
| School type | Independent Boys |
| Grades | K-11 |
| Language | English |
| Mascot | Gryphon |
| Team name | Selwyn House Gryphons |
| Colours | Black and Gold |
| Founded | 1908 |
| Enrolment | 570 (06-07) |
Selwyn House School (SHS) is a private independent boys' school located in Westmount, Quebec. Boys can attend from Kindergarten through to Grade 11. The school was founded in 1908 by Englishman Captain Algernon Lucas. It is named after Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, which Lucas attended.
Tuition fees for attending Selwyn as of the 2009-10 school year range from $15,210 to $19,070.
In recent years, the school underwent substantial renovations in its two main buildings on campus, in addition to the construction of a third building. All three are connected to one another by means of both underground and overground tunnels, ensuring protection against Montreal's harsh winters. A laptop program is in place ensuring that every student in Grades 7-11 has a portable computer for use in both school, where they are tightly integrated into the curriculum, and at home.
Students are divided into four houses, which serve intramural athletics purposes within the primary school. The houses, named after the first four headmasters of the school, are Lucas (yellow), Macaulay (red), Wanstall (green) and Speirs (blue).
The Selwyn House Gryphons have fielded strong athletic teams in recent decades and their traditional rivals in sports are Lower Canada College and Loyola High School.
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In 1908, the English-speaking elite of Montreal were in need of a suitable preparatory school, and a certain Captain Algernon Lucas was seeking a career. A graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge University, he was given the job of educating seven boys. He had immediate success, and within two years, Lucas School had to move from Lucas' Crescent Street apartment to a larger house on Mackay Street. In 1912, Lucas turned to the business world and Colin Macaulay, whom was a classmate of Lucas' at Selwyn College, took his place at the helm.
The School quickly developed a character of its own and relocated two more times. Its aim was to provide a solid grounding in basic subjects, and to equip boys for the boarding schools from which they would proceed to university. The School was modeled after English preparatory schools, and the staff was largely recruited from the United Kingdom. The caliber of students from Selwyn House was highly respected at their subsequent schools and scholarships were won regularly.
In 1985, William Mitchell became the headmaster. The School's needs and demands for added facilities reached a point where one building was no longer sufficient. When St. Andrew's United Church across the street closed, Selwyn House purchased and renovated it, where it is now currently known as the Macaulay Building. In 2002, the School built the Speirs Building which housed a new double-sized gym, a spacious high-tech library, numerous classrooms, offices and an Agora for student assemblies and various other functions. This was followed by a massive renovation of the original Lucas Building, including converting its gymnasium into a large, modern dining hall and fully equipped auditorium, dubbed Coristine Hall.
In January 2009, Hal Hannaford took over as the school's new headmaster. Mitchell, a member of the Bishop's University Sports Hall of Fame, retired after the school's hundredth year came to a close. In the winter of 2010, the school completed renovations of the aging Macaulay Building. There is now a wall, on the main floor, of students dating back 100 years ago.
The sexual abuse scandal involved allegations that various teachers, none of whom were still present at the school, committed sexual abuse of over 30 minors during the 1970s to early 1980s.[1]
In September 2005, an alumnus of the school launched a lawsuit against Selwyn House claiming that he had been molested by a former teacher, Leigh Seville. Allegations regarding misconduct were made in 1991, and the school administration confronted Seville. Soon after, he committed suicide along with his father, and no further action on the issue was taken by the school administration.[2]
Allegations that two former teachers had also abused students were filed as part of a class action lawsuit on February 3, 2006.[3] The school agreed to a 5 million dollar compensation fund in January 2009. The fund was approved by the Quebec Superior Court as a settlement for former students, their partners, and their parents.[1]
On May 10, 2008, one of the school teachers, Richard Doucet, was arrested by John Chapman of the Dumfries Police in Virginia under the charges of soliciting underage sex from a 13-year old boy and possessing child pornography, although the charges did not relate to any of his activities at the school.[4] In August 2009, Doucet was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of 14 years in Virginia prison.[5]