The mother of the 16-year-old Mason Hall Secondary School boy who was arrested for allegedly stabbing his 18-year-old classmate at the school on Thursday, says her son was a victim of ongoing bullying.
In an interview yesterday Avianne Huyghew, 30, said Thursday’s incident was a regular occurrence for her son during school hours and has been occurring for several months.
She said her son was hospitalised at the Scarborough General Hospital on May 15 for a broken finger, which had to be splinted with steel and a serious laceration to his head, which took several sutures, after five boys attacked him after school. She said although the incident was video recorded and numerous reports were made at the Scarborough Police Station, the matter was never dealt with.
On Thursday, Huyghew said her son was in the process of defending himself.
“If they did deal with this as quickly as possible, like how they deal with it today, it would not have escalated to this, because they deal with the situation very quick today. When I came to them with my son all battered and bruised they paid me no mind. I came back, I came back and nothing.
“Today now, my son defended himself against the same individual what beat him up, they want to lock him up, he defended himself because he was being bullied all the time” Huyghew said.
Huyghew also dismissed several news reports that her son would have passed MTS security officials with the knife used during the incident. She said her son was not the aggressor, but was a victim.
“He came home about half past nine telling me ‘mammy you see the same thing I tell you I didn’t want to go to school again’ ... he came with his hand bleeding, because right now is one hand he have because they break he finger last month... he said ‘the boy rush me, he slapped me in my face, when I asked him what is that one, he headbutt me’ and when he was about to stand up he slapped him again and that is when they started to fight.
“He said the boy pulled out a knife from his right pocket and they started to scuffle and he managed to get the knife from him, when he had taken up the knife the boy was over him,” she said.
Huyghew said the matter was also reported to the school’s management but despite her evidence she was never taken seriously.
“I went back to the school after he was all better, he come out the hospital, he was dealt with and everything was good, I went back to school with him and I saw the vice-principal and the (he) was supposed to keep a meeting with the principal and myself, that did not take place.
“They did not call me to verify any date or anything like that, so I am sure the principal knows about it, she didn’t even call me to find out what went on... well apparently seeing it didn’t take place in she school, it took place outside, she ain’t meddle,” she said.
An emotional Huyghew also noted that she reached out to a well known senior police officer who is actively involved in an anti-bullying campaign and the co-host of a local crime fighting television programme on June 8 via a WhatsApp message about her plight, but she received no response.
The 18-year-old student remains warded at the Scarborough General Hospital in a satisfactory condition nursing stab wounds to the forehead, back and chest, while charges are yet to be laid on the 16-year-old.