Video of student-principal scuffle released
CBC News
Posted: May 28, 2010 5:22 PM AT
Last Updated: May 28, 2010 10:55 PM AT
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Security video of a March confrontation between a principal and a student at a Nova Scotia high school was posted on YouTube on Friday.
The video appears to show Ken Fells, who at the time was principal of Graham Creighton Junior High, wrestling with 14-year-old Josh Boutilier.
Frank, a bi-weekly gossip magazine published in Halifax, posted the silent video after releasing still images of the scuffle earlier in the week.
Fells was removed as principal at the Cherry Brook school last week, but is still an employee of the Halifax Regional School Board.
'What people don't understand is the tape is bad enough. It's what happened in the office that is even worse.'—Mike Wagner
Josh, who now attends a new school, received a concussion, cuts and bruises during the altercation, according to his family.
Mike Wagner and Janet Boutilier had asked to see the video involving their son, but the school board declined to show it to them.
They first saw it Friday afternoon on CBC.ca. After viewing the video, the couple said it confirmed Josh's account and repeated their call for Fells to be fired.
"It just horrifies me," Boutilier said, adding that her son told her he thought he was going to die that day.
"What people don't understand is the tape is bad enough. It's what happened in the office that's even worse," Wagner said.
The video shows Fells dragging Josh into an office, but ends there.
Wagner said the teen sustained the concussion in the office.
School fight
The incident started when Fells demanded Josh hand over his cellphone after the boy prepared to record a fight that was brewing in the school, the parents said.
The fight did not happen and the boy refused to hand over his phone, the parents said. He walked away and Fells followed, they said.
RCMP investigated the incident and no charges were laid.
The Halifax Regional School Board held a marathon meeting last week before deciding to remove Fells from the school, but keep him as an employee.
"I have no idea what they were thinking. I can't understand how they could defend this man," Janet Boutilier said.
"Nobody that you talk to wants their kids going to a school where he is, because he could lose his temper again," Wagner said.
Boutilier said they received hate mail over the incident and the family was glad the video is out.
"Hopefully, it will change the public's view," she said. "I'd like to think the school board is embarrassed of their decision.
"Everyone's too quick to judge us, saying we're bad parents and we should be ashamed of ourselves, we have a thug. He's not a thug, he's a good kid," she added.
Calls to Fells went unanswered Friday and attempts to reach the school board were not successful.
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