12-year-old student suffers broken jaw, chin at Montreal-area high school

MONTREAL – The blender has become a popular kitchen tool for Crystal McWhirter.

For the next two months, every meal she’ll make for her son Kyle has to be mashed up like a milkshake, since the 12-year-old’s mouth is wired shut.

The boy’s jaw was broken, his chin was fractured, and several teeth were shattered following a physical altercation he reportedly had with a classmate last week at Lasalle Community Comprehensive High School in Lasalle.

Kyle McWhirter said he was assaulted, almost choked to death, by someone he described as a bully.

“He can’t scream and he can’t talk,” Crystal McWhirter told Global News.

“I am always by his side.  I’m afraid of something happening and I can’t hear him.”

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The young victim said there is a lack of hallway monitors at his school, but his mother is furious about something else.

She said after the scuffle, school officials “dropped the ball.”

She said her son’s transfer to a hospital was delayed, police were not immediately notified, and she claimed the alleged aggressor, who is also a 12-year-old boy, was not immediately suspended.

“He was allowed to return to school the very next day,” McWhirter said.

“If I was working there, the student would have been out, like ‘take your bags and go.'”

Suanne Stein Day, the chairperson of the Lester B. Pearson School Board, called the event “unfortunate,” but added it’s a case of two boys “horsing around.”

“This was an isolated incident. I’m familiar with that school, I know the teachers are out in the hallways during the recess period,” Stein Day said.

Crystal McWhirter said that is proof the school board is not taking her son’s case very seriously.

“Show some sort of care maybe,” she said.

Kyle’s recovery is expected to take between six and eight weeks.

He has a second operation scheduled for the end of the month.

If everything goes as planned, he may be able to eat solid foods sometime soon after.

“I really want McDonald’s,” he said, with a laugh.

Please note: The comments on this story have been closed. Police have confirmed that they are investigating the case and possible charges may be laid.