First Nations boy assaulted at Steinbach school transfers, uses dance to heal (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 20 hours ago by HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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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.

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[-] nyan@lemmy.cafe 7 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 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.ca 4 points 16 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.cafe 4 points 15 hours 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.

[-] grey_maniac@lemmy.ca 0 points 13 hours ago

if everyone is bullied, then I take they won't mind if some people drop by to bully them? I have some free time.

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 6 points 16 hours ago

Something is broken when children assault children due to racism.

[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 12 hours ago

I'd say "due to any reason", really. I've been assaulted multiple times as a kid, and it has nothing to do with racism, just "being different" is enough

Maybe it was, but I'm guessing that for these kids too, it probably wasn't racism as much as that he's simply different. He looks different, has stoop long hair, there you go.

Schools should focus way more on being accepting on anyone, no matter the skin color, hair style, abilities and disabilities, etc.