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Families of bullied teens won't back down

Charges of assault and uttering threats laid against Squamish teen

A three-year string of bullying incidents involving a number of Grade 9 students in Squamish has led to the arrest and upcoming court appearance for a 14-year-old student at Don Ross Secondary School.

"On the 28th a 14-year-old was arrested and released on conditions. He has a court appearance on Oct. 27 and the allegations are assault and uttering threats," said Cpl. Dave Ritchie of the Squamish RCMP.

"I know from my school days many years ago that bullying and that takes place, I think it takes place pretty early in schools and the police and the school board are doing their best to stay on top of it. That is the sad part about bullying, that it is often not reported so it is pretty engrained and has done a lot of harm to people."

Squamish RCMP was first called to investigate on Sept. 24 when 14-year-old Austin Aldridge was allegedly forced to fight another student while surrounded by a group of teens who repeatedly pushed him back into his opponent when he tried to exit the situation. Aldridge suffered a broken hand and concussion in the scrap. He was also given a three-day suspension from school.

The students who allegedly organized the fight received detentions, including the ringleader who faces the allegations of assault.

According to Aldridge's mother Zoe, school authorities were alerted to the planned fight the week before it happened. Austin was simply told not to get involved, which his mother says doesn't address the overarching pressures stemming from the other students. She is frustrated that school authorities didn't do more to prevent the situation from occurring.

"I had this problem at Highlands Elementary with this same group and I even found that there was more response from that little elementary school of helping me out than there is with the high school," she said. "I've been in the school and I've heard them talk to the teachers just like dirt and they just don't do anything. I don't know if they are scared of them or if they are running the school. They need to make a change. Kids can die. Look at Reena Virk. It all falls together."

According to Bianca Peters, another mother in Squamish, a few days after the brawl the student who instigated the fight verbally threatened Austin and her son, who has also been a regular target of harassment. Peters says the bullying has been taking place since Grade 7 at Garibaldi Highlands Elementary School and a number of students are still under physical and emotional attack from the same perpetrator.

Disappointed with the handling of the incidents by school authorities, she took it to the RCMP after finding bruises on her son again last week.

"I called the police and the police are charging him. He's (the alleged bully) a juvenile. Over 12 (years old) it is criminal so he's facing threatening and physical assault," she said. "He had actually beaten up my son the week before and my son, unbeknownst to me, was covered in bruising, so the police had photographs to take."

School authorities at Don Ross Secondary have dealt with the problem by holding a school assembly to address the dangers of bullying, by promoting a culture of caring and forbidding students from leaving school property during school hours. Peters and Aldridge are not satisfied that these measures will be enough to protect any kids who are bullied.

"In terms of our school board, I keep saying that these people are very well intentioned, but they are kind of dealing with it with a one-dimensional philosophy when the issue is multi-dimensional," continued Peters, who started a well-attended Facebook group called Bully Free Howe Sound in 2009.

"They need to take a good, hard look and realize that yes, there is bullying going on, and I think in my case and in Austin's case, that we have to take the bullies a little more seriously."

The Superintendent of Schools for School District 48 says the school's role is to improve communication within the school and that a child's family plays an important part in that communication within the home. He doubts that a blanket policy for bullies will have any effect in the long run.

"Sometimes some people need a little more time to learn," said Dr. Rick Erickson. "Other times when this sort of thing is introduced it is regardless of the circumstances upon which the student is brought forward to the school administration. So what it really means is that judgment is suspended and that's not the way we work in schools.

"The idea is that the school situation is an education situation, both for the reading, writing and arithmetic, and for the social and emotional challenges. And so we work with kids, we use judgment in individual cases and work with kids over time. Strike one, strike two, strike three you're out is interesting because - out to where? Out to the streets?"

Bullying is defined by the American Psychological Association as an aggressive behaviour that is intended to cause distress or harm, and that involves an imbalance of power or strength between the aggressor and the victim. Statistics released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HRSA say that boys who were identified as bullies in middle school were four times as likely as their non-bullying peers to have more than one criminal conviction by age 24.

Zoe Aldridge says Austin is recovering well and has support from friends but is understandably uneasy about the future. She plans to launch a petition to have the offending students permanently removed from Don Ross Secondary before the bullying can further disrupt her son's life.

"I just feel that my son is scared to go back to school - why should I have to home school him when these bullies can stay in school and be normal and do whatever they want," she said. "I just feel helpless. When I'm at work I don't know what's going on at that school. I can't sit there every day at lunch hour and he doesn't want me to, it's embarrassing."