Retired teacher pleads guilty to crimes dating back 40+ years involving elementary students

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A retired teacher out of York Region accused of crimes involving elementary school students more than four decades ago has pleaded guilty.

Police said Lawrence 'Larry' Fritz worked with the York Region District School Board until his retirement in 2020.

On Friday, the 75-year-old pleaded guilty to five counts of inappropriately touching students in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

The Ontario College of Teachers lists Fritz as having been certified in 1975.

The court heard that in 1977, a disturbing pattern of behaviour began.

Lawrence Fritz is pictured in this York Regional Police handout.

The Crown read the Agreed Statement of Facts describing several assaults over the next few years, including inviting female students to his desk at the back of the classroom while teaching kids in Grades 3 and 4, and touching their backsides, rubbing their backs under their clothes and placing his hand between one girl's legs.

They said the assaults happened several times throughout the school year.

According to police, the investigation began in 2021 when three female victims reported sexual offences, and one male victim reported a physical assault.

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Fritz was arrested in early 2022 and charged with three counts of gross indecency, three counts of indecent assault, forcible confinement and assault with intent.

Investigators believed there may have been more victims and encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

In court on Friday, Justice Cary Boswell accepted Fritz's pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault, one count of gross indecency and assault of the boy in the early 90s when the court heard Fritz angrily shoved the child into the wall of a boys washroom; knocking the student to the ground.

The allegations involved girls who were at least eight and nine years old in Nobleton and Thornhill between 1977 and 1983 and a boy who was in the sixth grade in Richmond Hill in the early 90s.

Following the hearing, Fritz's lawyer declined to comment on the guilty plea.

A court-imposed publication ban protects the identities of his victims.

Fritz is scheduled to be sentenced in April.