Alarming sexual incident at school

Hamilton mother angry with board’s response over scene in washroom

A Hamilton mother has removed her 5-year-old son from a French Catholic elementary school after she says her son was involved in a disturbing sexual incident with another 5year-old student in the school washroom.

The mother said she received a call from École élémentaire catholique Notre-Dame in east Hamilton, about 2:45 p.m. on Nov. 29 telling her a teacher had discovered her son on his knees in the washroom with the other boy’s penis in his mouth.

The mother said her son has been the victim of bullying by a small group of students since the start of the school year.

The Spectator is not identifying the mother and the children because of the sexual nature of the alleged incident and the boys’ ages.

Based on the mother’s attempts to piece together the timing of the incident, she says the school waited nearly three hours to tell her. The school described it as a “courtesy call,” she says, to let her know that the Catholic Children’s Aid Society (CCAS) had been called in to investigate.

Anahid Ehab Hanna Elkes, principal of Notre-Dame, declined to respond to repeated phone calls and email messages, then directed all questions to the MonAvenir French Catholic school board.

The MonAvenir board issued a single-sentence response to a request for comment. “The board cannot comment on matters involving minors in its care,” a spokesperson stated in an email.

Marcel Levesque, the French Catholic school trustee representing Notre-Dame, said he was unaware of the incident and expressed shock when contacted Monday afternoon. He said he would look into the allegations and respond.

About an hour later, the board indicated its terse statement covered any comments by Levesque as well.

The mother said she’s decided to move her son to a new school.

She’s angry with what she sees as the cavalier manner in which the school handled a shocking incident.

She said the teacher who found the boys put them both in a timeout.

“Why was I not notified im- mediately?” the mother asked.

“This is a very serious matter,” she said. “Put aside the sexual part — where were you? You’re supposed to be supervising children.”

“This should never have happened,” she added. “This is a professional place. This is a school.”

After returning home with her son, the mother says she asked him to describe what happened. He told her the other boy told him if he didn’t kiss his penis, he won’t be his friend.

She said her son has struggled since September to make friends, since he’s new to the school.

The night before the incident, her son asked if they could make cupcakes for his class.

“I asked why and he said ‘Well, I don’t have any friends,’ ” the mother said. “I’m going ‘Oh my God.’ It’s unreal.”

The mother says she was visited by a CCAS worker the following day. She said her son was so distraught, he was in the fetal position gouging at his eyes as he was being questioned.

She said the CCAS told her that the other boy had been interviewed and had said that her son asked if he could kiss the other boy’s penis. She said her son strongly denied saying that.

The mother says she’s also upset with the way the CCAS has handled the case.

She said the worker told her “there’s no real need for you to phone the police on this because we work very closely with the police,” the mother said.

“Of course I’m phoning. I’m a mom here, this is my child. Where’s the justice in this?”

On Monday, the mother said she was contacted by a different CCAS worker, who asked her if she had been speaking with the media and seemed angry with her when she said yes.

Rocco Gizzarelli, executive director of the CCAS, said he can’t speak about the specifics of any case the society is involved in.

Gizzarelli said public agencies, such as schools, have “a duty to report any suspected situations involving child abuse or risk of abuse to a children’s aid society.”

“This would include situations such as the one you have described, where age-inappropriate sexualized behaviours are witnessed,” Gizzarelli added.

The mother said she contacted police and was visited by two police officers on Sunday. She produced an incident report number provided to her by one of the officers.