WINNIPEG – Manitoba RCMP and the Flin Flon School Division are investigating after a kindergarten student was allegedly tied up by older kids in a schoolyard and bullied for more than an hour before other students noticed him.
The five-year-old was dropped off at school and played in the yard until the bell rang, said Mylene Robertson, his mom. It was then that some older kids got a hold of Seth, 5, tied him to a goalpost with his shoelaces and hit him with a necklace chain, she said.
Seth was freed after some Grade 6 students found him and the bullies ran off, she said.
Flin Flon School Division Supt. Blaine Veitch confirmed that a kindergarten student was outside McIsaac School being bullied by older children from approximately 1:15 to 2:45 p.m. Wednesday. He couldn’t confirm any other details.
“It’s under investigation,” Veitch said by phone from Flin Flon. “We’re working with the family and the RCMP. We’re talking to students and staff.”
There are suspects who aren’t students at McIsaac, he said.
The investigation will look into what happened and how to prevent similar situations in the future, Veitch said. The school division has supervision protocols but he said he didn’t know whether they were followed in this case.
RCMP confirmed they’d been informed of the case and were investigating, but had few details because the case was new, a Flin Flon detachment officer said.
Someone from the school did call the Robertsons’ home when Seth wasn’t in class Wednesday afternoon, but his mom was sleeping after working a night shift, said Rob Robertson, Seth’s dad. He was home but outside doing yard work.
He doesn’t understand why no one at the school would check the schoolyard for so long, and said at first it seemed as if school staff were trying to blame the Robertsons for not answering the phone.
“I’m definitely concerned, and I would expect to see some changes,” he said. “You’re not always going to be able to reach somebody.”
Mylene Robertson said this isn’t the first time her son has gone missing while under the care of school officials.
The first time she sent him to school on the bus he wasn’t on the bus when she went to meet it at the end of the day, she said. He’d been put on the wrong bus and was delivered home an hour late, she said.
“This is twice now they’ve messed up.”
Flin Flon is 630 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg near the Saskatchewan border.
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