Mario Perron, a middle school teacher at Westwood Junior High School in Saint-Lazare, Canada, has apparently been secretly selling his students’ art projects on the web for his own profit. A pupil stumbled across the teacher’s website with listings for drawings created by the student and fellow classmates in class, and reported the discovery to the school, according to CTV News. The usual investigation is ongoing, but how else would class art projects end up on line being sold for as much as $100? Here, for example, are some of the student drawings being sold on mugs…
Wow. People will buy anything online. The drawings also are being offered on T-shirts and phone cases.
The father of the student who made the discovery told reporters, “I’m extremely disgusted with [the teacher]. It’s extremely, you know, it’s unbelievable…Is this teacher asking for certain types of projects to be done to be able to sell them? Is he asking for these types of portraits to be done so it meets the market?…I’m not impressed with the school, or the school board.”
Perron’s LinkedIn profile says he has been a full-time teacher at Westwood Junior since September 2019 His profile also promotes his personal website, 1-mario-perron.pixels.com, which is where he offered his students’ artwork for sale without their permission or knowledge.
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Pointer: JutGory
Ethics Alarms 
I do not know if this is at all related, but there is a website that compiles student artwork for purchase. The purpose is to allow parents, grandparents, family to purchase items. My mother has purchased several items with my children’s artwork on them. I tend to eschew such marketing ploys, but, when my daughter’s drawing of a cup of hot cocoa popped up, I knew I wanted a coffee mug with that drawing on it. It suited my sense of humor and she likes the “mug on a mug” we have.
I have yet to order the mouse pad with our cat, Ginger, with a mouse hanging out of her mouth. But, it’s coming….
-Jut
I still use the mousepad with the artwork of my son on it. He’s 24.
OK, maybe we need to apologize for thinking that nobody would legitimately buy Hunter Biden’s art at those prices.
You owe me a keyboard.
Isn’t original art automatically copyrighted to the artist?
Yup.
The best ethics lessons come when they drain your pocketbook. The parents should demand a massive licensing fee or some form of royalty plus punitive compensation from the teacher. I guarantee if that teacher created some type of work and another began selling it as his own work that creating teacher would be in court in 2 seconds of finding out.