A 41-year-old P.E.I. woman who worked as a school counsellor has been charged with sexual assault and sexual interference involving a person under the age of 16.
The RCMP’s Major Crime Unit launched an investigation Sept. 14 into sexual offences against a youth, police said in a press release.
A 41-year-old woman from Queens County was arrested in connection with the probe, police said. She was charged with sexual assault, sexual interference of a person under the age of 16, invitation to sexual touching involving a person under the age of 16, and permitting a person under 19 to consume cannabis contrary to the Cannabis Control Act.
The suspect has since appeared before a justice of the peace and was released on strict conditions. She is set to appear again in provincial court on Oct. 28.
Police believe the case is isolated to one victim and there is not a threat to the greater public, RCMP Cpl. Gavin Moore said.
“Our priority is to ensure the dignity, privacy, and well-being of victims throughout the process,” Moore said in the release. “With this in mind, we will not be providing any further details that could lead to the identification of the victim, which includes the name of the accused.”
While the RCMP did not name the accused, court documents obtained by CBC News show Bethany Jean Toombs, a counsellor with the student services team at East Wiltshire Intermediate School in Cornwall, was arrested on the charges listed in the RCMP statement.
Toombs’ name was listed last month on the school’s website as a counsellor within the student services team, as seen on archived pages available on Internet Archives, but her name has since been removed from the staff list. The school is for students in grades 7 through 9.
Toombs also played a role in the development of multiple educational modules within the Grade 9 PEI wellness and relationship choices curriculum, with a focus on consent, gender stereotypes, and sexual assault.
Toombs previously taught social studies at Charlottetown Rural High School where she was also head of The GSA, a gender/sexuality awareness group. The goal of the group, according to the school website, is to promote “a healthy and open atmosphere for all students to discuss issues of gender and sexuality.”
She also headed a workshop dubbed “Let’s Talk About Sex: 21st Century Sex Ed and Youth” at a 2013 gender and sexual health expo in Charlottetown. The goal of the workshop was to “discuss and debate potential strategies for ensuring youth have the knowledge and skills they need for healthy decision-making regarding sexuality.”
More recently, CBC News featured Toombs as an expert in a 2019 article about parenting children with anxiety. At the time, Toombs was a counsellor at Parkside Elementary and one of the speakers on the panel How to Help Your Child With Anxiety and Self Regulation.
The Epoch Times contacted the Public Schools Branch, the organization that operates the English-language school system on P.E.I. and East Wiltshire Intermediate School for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Attempts to reach Toombs were also unsuccessful.
