Bullied child holds protest after facing repeated harassment at Winnipeg school

A Winnipeg child who hasfacedbullying at his school held a protest on Monday morning to stand up for himself.

Austin Young, 12, led a rally next toJohn Pritchard School, where he was backed by around 15 family members and strangers moved by his call to action.

His demand may help bring in new anti-bullying measures at his River East school, after his mother met with the principal during her son's protest.

The Grade 7 student's demonstration arose after hetook to his Facebook page lastFriday to decry what he called inaction by his school after a number of boys squirted juiceon him, replicating a sexual act, he said.

His post has beenshared more than 1,400 times on Facebook.

"I honestly hated it," said Young, standingoutside the fenced schoolyard where he said he's been bullied repeatedly.

He wasn't satisfied by the response from his principal, either.

"All she did was make them apologize, which is forced, and she made the kid clean my shoe."

Anxiety struggles

He doesn't think the school has done enough to stop the harassment.

Last year, he struggled with anxiety because of bullying, and his doctor recommended he step away from school for a couple of days until he received counselling.

"This year I had proof. They didn't do anything about it," Young said.

River EastTransconaSchool Division superintendent and CEOKellyBarkmansaid the responsible students have been reprimanded. They met with the vice-principal, their parents were informed and the boysreceived "school-based consequences," with privileges taken away.

Barkman is satisfied the school acted appropriately, but he saidthe building needs to become a safe environment for Young.

"We have to talk not only about consequences, but we have to talk about how to deal with it," hesaid.

The school asked the boy's parents to have the posts removed from Facebook because other people were making aggressive comments against school staff, Barkman said.

The school did not intervene in the protest, he said.

"My understanding is he took that upon himself to go ahead and do that, which Ican understand and appreciate and empathize with."

Young's mother,Kathryn Young,said she was satisfied with her conversation Monday morning with John Pritchard principal Barbara Bowles, who directed CBC'squestions to the school division.

"We're going to workon how he's going to start his anti-bullying campaign in the school andthey might do some kind of social club andhave some people that he can talk to if he's having some issues,"Young said

She said she's proud of her boy for defending himself he decided to write the Facebook postson his own.

It was left to him whether he wanted to take the posts down on Sunday.

The encouragement from complete strangers made the 12-year-old feel pretty good about himself, his mom said.

"He's having a lot of support and I said he doesn't have to take it down," she said.

Themessages were removed after Monday's rally.

Taking a stand against bullying at school

6 years ago

Duration 1:45

Austin Young held a protest outside John Pritchard school because he said it's not doing anything about bullying.

With files from Jillian Taylor