Art Teacher Busted Selling Students Art Online
Well, I had to share this story with you as an art teacher, who has been selling his students’ art online to make some money. His name is Mario Perron, a teacher at Westwood Junior High School out in Canada. He has been doing this behind the kids’ backs and they had no idea nor did he have any of their permission. Get this he was selling them for more than $100. Now he is being sued for $1.5 million big ones. You can get more information on this story by clicking right HERE.
Mario had told his students to produce a ‘Creepy Portrait‘ in the way of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. In this lawsuit, Mario, the art teacher was really impressed with how well the students did on the paintings. After the students did such a fine job on the assignments, that is when the painting pirates went into action and started selling them online. One of the parents was quoted as saying “This guy basically had his own little, you know, sweatshop of children, it’s insane. I’m still in disbelief.” according to the Washington Post.
How Did The Art Teacher Get Busted:
Mario’s little side hustle got shut down after a bunch of students, were looking him up online. That is when they came across about 4 websites where they found their stuff on his website for sale. Check this out on his website he offers all types of merchandise, from mugs to cell phone cases, featuring the artwork.
American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 – 1988), New York, 1985 . (Photo by Evelyn Hofer/Getty Images)
After being caught, the parents of the students got involved. They went to the school board and they started the investigation on him. No word on whether the students are getting money on the items that have been already sold. Moreover, a couple of parents are really going after Perron, and the school board, asking for $1.5 million in damages for the alleged property theft.
Some of their lawyers say they came up with that number by valuing each piece of artwork at $5,000 and then multiplying that by the number of items, 31, that were being sold. It’s not clear if they will get that money but at any rate I think the art teacher selling his students stuff to make some money is just crazy. What’s next selling the quilts that the elderly knit up in their spare time. Oh wait I’ve seen that in Happy Gilmore. WATCH
So in conclusion, thank you for taking the time out to read this post and always rocking out with me and 95.9 The Rat. Get more stories by clicking right HERE. Much love and cheers. – Gotts
