Theo Osborne is dancing again — about a month after he was attacked at a southeast Manitoba school.

The 11-year-old suffered a concussion, lost a tooth and had some hair pulled out in what his mother, Melissa Johnson, said was racially motivated bullying and assault at Stonybrook Middle School in Steinbach.

Johnson said the students who attacked Theo made fun of his long hair. Theo told his mom he was being bullied by two boys in December and that the bullying escalated after the winter break.

Johnson contacted the school’s principal and Theo’s teacher to address the bullying. She said her son tried going back to Stonybrook three times after the assault, but the bullying continued.

Johnson met with school officials but said they minimized Theo’s experience by refusing to call what happened an “assault.” She said not using accurate language dismissed the harm done to Theo.

  • nyan@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    7·
    3 hours ago

    Johnson met with school officials but said they minimized Theo’s experience by refusing to call what happened an “assault.” She said not using accurate language dismissed the harm done to Theo.

    We created a word for the specific purpose of minimizing these offences when they occur between youth: bullying. If we were more honest, we would call harassment, slander, verbal abuse, uttering threats, theft, vandalism, and assault by their proper names regardless of the ages of the people involved.

    • ergonomic_importer@piefed.caEnglish
      3·
      2 hours ago

      From a local news page posted in February:

      Johnson says public reaction since the story became known has been difficult to process, describing both support and criticism from community members.

      “It’s been okay,” she said. “I noticed a lot of the reactions from locals have been pretty racist still. Like people saying that it was just bullying, it had nothing to do with race, ‘everyone’s bullied and it just happens.’”

      She says the situation went beyond typical bullying.

      “This was different. He was bullied because of his race, it wasn’t just typical bullying,” Johnson said. “There was typical bullying that had taken place, but this was actually targeted towards his race.”

      • nyan@lemmy.cafeEnglish
        3·
        1 hour ago

        Typical bullying is targeted toward kids who stand out in some way—different race, different religion, not adhering to gender norms, or just being poor—and that the bullies know will not be backed up by the other students. So unfortunately, I would say that racist bullying is typical bullying.