Errors were made and the Sea to Sky School District is in the process of learning, says Sea to Sky director of instruction Rose MacKenzie in the wake of a disturbing incident that's been compared to cockfighting involving dozens of teens.
"Hindsight is 20/20," she said. "It's still a learning process."
During a lunch break on Friday (Sept. 24), 14-year-old Don Ross Secondary student Austin Aldridge and another boy had a fight in a wooded area near school property where as many as 25 teens had congregated to watch. Austin ended up in hospital with a concussion and broken hand, however his mother said the entire incident could have been avoided if school officials had heard his cries for help.
Five days earlier Austin had told his mother Zoe Aldridge that the bullies who had been taunting and harassing him for three years were going to force him and the other boy to fight.
He said he didn't want to and Aldridge spoke to the vice principal who assured her it would be dealt with, however on Friday she was called in to take her son to hospital.
"That's telling children they can't even go to adults because nothing will help anyways," said Aldridge. "I think they don't have any control. I think these kids are running the school."
MacKenzie expressed concern over the mother's attempts to address the problems five days earlier only to have violence still occurred.
"Why when the mom reported it, the boy reported it, it still happened? So we have to look again, 'OK, what would we do differently next time?'" said MacKenzie.
Cell phone video shown to Aldridge on Friday showed her son and the other boy attempting to escape a circle of more than two dozen teens, and being pushed against each other and threatened into fighting by a few "bigger boys."
"It was almost like a cock-pit fighting. It was disgusting," said Aldridge.
The video footage was subsequently deleted by a school official worried it would be posted on the Internet. Aldridge and Austin's father Corey Williams were both furious the official "erased the evidence."
MacKenzie acknowledged erasing the video was a mistake.
"The school official had the best of intentions," she said. "The concern was that this video would be distributed onto the Internet and used to humiliate or demean something even further so the video was deleted.
"Now 20/20 hindsight, should've done a copy of the video, kept the cell phone - this is something we're going to learn from."
Despite the video, the boys were suspended for three days since they were seen as willingly engaging in the fight.
"It had been brought to the VP's attention that a student was concerned about fighting, so [the answer] was 'OK don't fight, make sure you don't do that,' but yet they still fought, so that's why they were suspended," said MacKenzie.
She said the allegation of coercion is still being investigated.
"We don't know at this point in time if that is what happened."
But, she said, since Austin felt as though he was being coerced, the school will make sure to teach him how to "prevent him from getting into that position."
"Then in turn what can do with the other students that are engaging in this kind of behaviour - if in fact they are engaging this kind of behaviour."
Aldridge has called on the school officials to permanently remove the boys since they've exhibited bullying for the past three years, saying at this point, "I consider them criminals."
MacKenzie acknowledged it's not the first time the alleged bullies have been accused of violent behaviour.
MacKenzie called the situation "complicated."
"I happen to know who the four or five boys are," said MacKenzie. "Now in this case, there was another name and I never heard of this name before so I mean it's complicated. And when it comes to group dynamics it's not easy and you know, you have to catch these kids, and that's not easy either."
Local mother Bianca Peters, who launched the Facebook group Bully Free Howe Sound last spring after the same group of boys victimized her son for more than two years, said the incident shows that the school district continues to be ineffective when it comes to teen violence.
"I don't think that our school board knows how to handle bullying," said Peters. "It's like Keystone Cops. They're fumbling, they're reacting instead of having a plan."
She added the deletion of the video footage highlights the school's lack of awareness around social media and the contemporary measures children use for harassment.
"They're completely out to lunch when it comes to social media. They are not on top of what is going on with the kids today."
MacKenzie agreed more needs to be done to educate school officials on the subject.
"We really need to look at that social media piece and how we're going to address at the administrative level, at the school level and with the kids."
Peters is lending her support to Aldridge and has called on local parents and teens to hand over any other cell phone footage that may have been captured during the incident.
"We would like to have a copy of that video," said Peters. "That video is evidence. These are no longer bullies, these are perpetrators."
The RCMP issued a statement saying the matter was being investigated,however Peters said she was frustrated the RCMP member who was designated the town's school liaison last year in response to bullying wasn't on hand.
"This was a wonderful opportunity to contact the school RMCP officer and she's away on holiday," said Peters.
Calls to the RCMP were not immediately returned.
