Concerns About Perth Teacher Go Back to 2005

Since learning that her former teacher Jeff Peters was arrested in 2019, an Ottawa woman says she’s been thinking about what happened between them many years ago over and over again.

“I felt like I was his secret girlfriend,” said Elizabeth, formerly of Perth, Ont. “He always talked about our amazing chemistry.”

CBC has agreed to let Elizabeth use a pseudonym to protect her identity.

She now realizes it wasn’t a real “relationship,” and understands that Peters was grooming her in 2005 and 2006 during her last years of high school, preparing for what would follow.

Peters was recently found guilty of sex crimes against two other former students who attended St. John Catholic High School in Perth, located southwest of Ottawa, from 2013 to 2016. He received a sentence of three and a half years in prison on April 29.

In 2019, when Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) first announced charges against Peters, Elizabeth, who was then in her 30s, approached the police and shared her experiences.

She provided a statement and served as a witness; however, since her sexual involvement with Peters started after she turned 18 and graduated from high school, she felt “on the outside” during the recent criminal case proceedings, Elizabeth told CBC.

No charges were filed regarding her situation.

On April 29, a judge at the Perth courthouse convicted Peters of sex crimes against two former students. (Julie Ireton/CBC)

Sexual crimes

The agreed statement of fact related to Peters’s convictions read into the record at the Perth courthouse and obtained by CBC reveals details about two victims whose identities remain protected under a publication ban.

Both victims attended St. John Catholic High School where they were students of Peters.

One student reported that her interactions with Peters began with inappropriate comments and hugs. This later escalated to kissing, sexual touching followed by sexual intercourse multiple times while she was in Grade 12 in 2016.

“It was usually on Thursdays he would play golf…. They would meet up, kiss; he would turn her around and have sex,” read the court statement. “She sobbed the whole way home.”

The second victim informed police that she believed Peters was her “boyfriend” and thought it only happened to her.

“They would share sexual messages via email at school…. When she was 17, he had her stay after class; he pulled down her shirt and kissed her neck. They kissed,” according to court testimony.

Peters taught history and religion as well as coached sports teams for several years at St. John Catholic High School in Perth, Ont. (Julie Ireton/CBC)

A decade prior

Elizabeth mentioned that her experience with Peters took place ten years before the two cases involved in his convictions.

Soon after Elizabeth graduated from St. John Catholic High School in 2006, she said Peters began an “off-and-on” sexual relationship that continued well into his marriage.

Looking back now, she feels that Peters had groomed her for several years before she turned 18 while still being his student.

Even though no charges were brought based on her story, Elizabeth praised how OPP investigators treated her-listening carefully while also providing access to counseling support.

“They were incredible,” she said. “I’m taking baby steps trying to accept it piece by piece.”

Peters will be listed on the sexual offenders registry for two decades and is prohibited from contacting both victims as well as two other individuals.

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