Mom says school failed to protect bullied daughter

BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

andy.blatchford@transcontinental.ca

The mother of a 13-year-old girl allegedly assaulted by several schoolmates says school officials did little to stop constant bullying throughout the year.

She said the relentless harassment of her daughter and a friend culminated into last week's beating. "It has been going on all year," said the Pierrefonds resident, who did not give her name to protect her daughter's identity. "This time they were getting quite violent."

In several skirmishes during the year, the same "gang of girls" at Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School allegedly stole her daughter's cellphone, school bag and pushed her around, the woman said.

Her daughter also missed significant school time because of the bullies.

In last week's incident, at least one of the Grade 7 student's assailants was carrying a knife, the mother said.

The girl has spoken to police and is considering filing a complaint.

The mother said school employees were told several times about the bullies, but nothing was done. "I would have liked them (school officials)... when they knew these girls are hassling people, to have somebody keep an eye on them," she said, adding school officials acknowledged the suspects had been in trouble "a lot."

But the student refused to identify the culprits to the principal. "They wouldn't do anything unless my daughter told them the names, and she was afraid to," the mother said.

The woman alleges the principal told her daughter he didn't want her to stay at the school if she wouldn't reveal the names of the bullies.

The mother also said she asked a vice-principal to escort her daughter to the bus because she felt threatened on the day of the attack, but was refused.

Meanwhile, the school's principal doesn't believe the girl was denied a companion to the bus. "That cannot be true," principal Cecil Humphries said Monday. "No child is going to be turned away if they approach us and ask for help."

He said bullying and fighting are common in all schools and never "swept under the carpet" at PCHS.

The school has an effective peer mediation program and a behavioural technician who deals with students on an individual basis, Humphries said.

He denied telling the girl she wasn't wanted at the school if she refused to squeal. "Threats like that are not made," he said. "What we're saying is you cannot help any child if they aren't willing to help us help them."

Humphries acknowledged suspensions were handed out last week. "There was an incident that happened — I'm not going to deny there was an incident that happened — and there were six students suspended for their involvement and for the way in which they handled the whole situation," he said.

Seven videos of the incidents, including one which clearly shows a teenage boy slap the woman's much-smaller daughter across the face, could be watched Thursday on the popular website YouTube.

Other movies showed the girl's 13-year-old friend with a welt under her eye and one of her attackers grabbing her by the hair.

In both videos, the girls are outdoors, surrounded by a group of laughing teenagers. They are each subjected to barrages of insults, which included sexual remarks from one of the boys.

The low-quality films were removed from the site at 5 p.m. last Thursday. "When you watch the video, they enjoyed hurting (them)," said the girl's mother, adding the assailants are in Grade 7 and 9. "They got a thrill out of it."

Humphries said he was disappointed The Chronicle was contacted about the story. "It's a shame the parents feel they have to go to a media to deal with a conflict, which is a natural occurrence," he said. "We've done so much that's positive in this building in the last, probably three or four years, it's a shame I get the calls from The Chronicle on the things that are negative."