COURTENAY -- A boy who videotaped an
ugly after-school fight -- drawing new attention to the
issue of teen violence -- has dropped out of school and
rarely leaves home because of harassment and threats by
other students and the way he has been treated by school
officials.
Jane Forin said her 17-year-old
son, a budding cameraman, never returned to classes at G.P.
Vanier secondary after the incident.
"He's scared," Forin said
Thursday in an interview she agreed to reluctantly to let
others know how her son was treated by those who thought he
-- more than the brawling rowdies -- had given the school a
black eye.
Initially, she, too, wondered how
her son came to be in a position to film the fight, but
after talking with him about it, she was left with far more
troubling questions about the
response of school officials, whose criticisms of his
actions were quick and biting.
After the videotape was aired on
BCTV, school board
chairwoman Karen Lawrenson said the fight,
which included a shot of one teenager screaming that he
wanted his white T-shirt splattered with another's blood, was
no different from any other schoolyard fight
except that it was captured on film.
"The
component that makes this so outrageous is the fact that it
was videotaped," she
told The Vancouver Sun. "The fact that somebody would
stand and videotape a fight and not help the person being
victimized, I truly believe the board is extremely
disappointed that that happened."
Some parents believe those comments
were intended to deflect attention away from the fight and
the school, which was still recovering from a
teacher-student sex scandal last spring.
"Did anyone question the
motives of the person who filmed the Rodney King beating? Of
course not," said Sue Halstead, referring to the
infamous beating of a black man by Los Angeles police
officers that sparked outrage about the actions of the
officers.
"We always tell kids to expose
these things [violence and bullying], but now we're giving
them another message . . . that is, if you've got evidence
like this, don't give it out."
The school recently ordered
students not to take video cameras to school unless they are
to be used as part of the curriculum. Comox Valley
superintendent Clyde Woolman said that's not a new policy,
but it was reinforced after the filming of the fight. He
refused to say anything about Forin's son because of a
district policy not to comment on individual students.
A youth and an 18-year-old were
charged with assault as a result of the fight.
Forin said her son had been
carrying his camcorder everywhere since he purchased it from
a former employer last summer. He particularly loved to film
a friend doing bike stunts, and dreamed one day of a career
behind a camera.
On the day of the fight, he had
heard a couple of students were going to have it out behind
the school after classes and decided to go with his camera,
imagining he might capture a shot that could be edited into
the bike-stunt footage, she said.
He didn't know the fracas would
turn so violent, with one boy pummelling a much smaller kid
until he collapsed in tears and a larger boy then pounding
the aggressor in the first fight and stomping on his head
while he lay on the ground.
Forin said her son came home
immediately after the fight, shaken and upset. "He told
me he had no idea the fight was going to be that bad . . .
and he wasn't sure if he should have been doing that
[filming]."
But he had continued filming,
quietly, part of a group of about 20 other student
spectators. His mother said intervening would have been
dangerous, a view reinforced by the action on the videotape.
The next day, the boy went to Shaw
Cable, where he was involved in a work experience program he
loved and one that was authorized by the school. He showed
the tape to a woman employee and she was impressed, telling
him he could sell it to a TV station.
He was thrilled by the possibility
of money along with praise from one of the professionals he
hoped one day to emulate. The money never materialized, but
that didn't stop the rumors that he had been motivated by
cash from the start.
And neither police nor school
officials suggested his videotape would help in the fight
against schoolyard violence, by helping to raise awareness
or identify perpetrators. On the contrary, police issued a
statement saying the videotape had seriously impeded their
investigation because they couldn't find witnesses who
hadn't seen the tape on TV, and the school made its
disapproval clear.
When the boy went to the school the
next day with his mother to talk to the administrators, he
was told he had given the school a black mark, and he was
asked what kind of person he was.
"They were checking his ethics
and his morals," his mother said, adding that that was
unfair because it wasn't an issue of his morality. But Forin
said she didn't want to tangle with the school, either.
"I wanted to work together . . . I support the school
and anyone who knows me would tell you that."
But her support began to waver
after Lawrenson's comments and after she heard from other
parents how her son's
actions were criticized by officials who attended a parent
advisory council meeting
around the same time.
She wasn't at the meeting, but
Halstead was there and said she left knowing the boy was
going to be made a scapegoat.
Since then, he has been mocked,
scorned and threatened -- not by the boys who are facing
criminal charges but by friends of theirs. He still has a
group of good pals, but he's afraid of what others might do,
his mother said.
On Wednesday, he went to the
swimming pool, where a couple of kids shook fists at him and
threatened him, scaring him so that he asked his friends if
they could leave early.
Lawrenson said the boy should have
turned his tape over to the principal, rather than the
media. But Halstead and Wendy Zajac said the community would
never have found out about the fight if he had done that.
And only through awareness can the community help the school
address the problem, they said.
"This is all about the kids
and their safety . . . but they [officials] think it's about
them," Zajac added.
Forin said her boy hasn't given up
his dream of being a professional cameraman, although he's
more interested in documentaries than journalism. "He
does everything with a passion," she said with a smile,
never letting go of something he loves until he knows all
about it.
For now, however, he is trying to
get through his school work at home, and that work has never
come easily. His mother says he will decide next semester
whether he can return to school or whether he wants to
continue with home schooling.
