14-year-old girl arrested after another assault at a Mission school caught on camera

MISSION (NEWS 1130) — For the second time in less than a week, police in Mission are investigating an alleged assault that was caught on camera and shared online.

A 15-year-old girl and her mother made a police report last Wednesday, just days after a separate violent incident was caught on tape at École Heritage Park Middle School, according to Mission RCMP.

“They came down and as a result of their complaints an investigation was started,” explains Cpl. Jason Raaflaub, adding the incident took place at Mission Secondary

“As part of that investigation another very brief, approximately 15-second-long, video has surfaced. That video was online for some time at least. The video shows one female student on the ground and a second female on top of her some punches and kicks are thrown, and the video stops.”

A 14-year-old girl, who is a student at École Heritage Park Middle School was arrested Friday. The Grade 9 student was released with conditions not to contact the victim, and not to be present at Mission Secondary School.

“Our investigation is far from over,” Raaflaub says.

“We’d be recommending one charge of assaults, based on based on our investigation so far.”

The board chair of Mission Public Schools says the district is committed to making sure all students are safe.

“We are always concerned about violence in our community are taking these violent incidents very seriously. Mission Public Schools is committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all students and staff in our district. These recent violent acts are upsetting to all of us. As a district we are working hard to learn from the incidents last week and we are working closely with the RCMP, community agencies, school administrators, the Ministry of Education and Safer Schools Together, to review protocols and policies,” writes Tracy Loffler in a statement.

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The similarities between the two cases are troubling, Raaflaub notes.

“The two, unfortunately, did happen quite quickly together. The proximity and the time were certainly right on top of each other, and that’s unfortunate,” he says.

“The Mission RCMP does take any sort of bullying or violence in schools quite seriously.”

Raaflaub says police will be following up with the school to see if there are any other cases that have not yet been reported.

“Over the next short and long period of time, we will be working with the school quite closely to get their take. Perhaps there’s some events that have taken place that haven’t reached the investigators at our office, we may not be aware of it. So, we will be looking for that in the near future,” he says.

Over the weekend a rally to support the victim in the first incident, and to stand up against hate drew a crowd of hundreds. 

At a car rally today in Mission BC to show support for a trans sister who was harassed at school. Amazing turn out! Such a happy crowd. pic.twitter.com/w3afr87jwn

— Claudia (@Claudi_not_rain) January 17, 2021

The victim, in that case, identifies as non-binary, and the video shows them, being hit and punched by two girls while other students cheered. Two 14-year-old girls have been arrested.

In a letter to the Mission School Board and to Wilson written last week, Pflag Vancouver said there was nothing new about what is shown in the video.

“Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students have suffered this type of abuse on the playground since playground existed,” writes Colin McKenna, Pflag president.

“I know that most folks who watch this video are disturbed by it, but I know members of the LGBTQ community are re-traumatized by it each time it’s aired. We have lived this first-hand, and we want to see leaders like you take a firm stand to make it stop.”

Minister of Education Jennifer Whiteside called the incident “extremely disturbing and distressing,” adding,  “All students deserve to feel safe and welcome at school,” she says, adding school districts have policies and codes of conduct around SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) inclusion.”

With files from Mike Lloyd, Denise Wong, Martin MacMahon, Marcella Bernardo, Kathryn Tindale and Ashley Burr