School's actions led to boy's suicide attempt: mom

The mother of a B.C. boy suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder has filed a human rights complaint against the Surrey School District, claiming that secretaries' treatment of her son led to a suicide attempt.

The boy, referred to as "B" in B.C. Human Rights Tribunal documents, was eight years old when he got into an argument with his school's secretaries about whether he should attend an assembly on Sept. 11, 2009.

The dispute ended with a call to police and one secretary sitting on the boy the restrain him. For months later, he refused to leave the house or even use the stairs, and two months after the confrontation, he tried to commit suicide.

His mother says B "was not supposed to be forced" to attend large school functions because he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

B phoned home to complain about being told he had to go to the assembly, but the call was suddenly cut off after the mother heard the boy say "back off" to one of the secretaries.

When she arrived at the school some time later, she found her son lying curled on the floor in a fetal position with two police officers standing nearby. Two secretaries said they had to hold him back from running out of the office and that he kicked one of them in the shin.

In her complaint, the mother wrote that the confrontation caused B to suffer secondary PTSD and severe deterioration of his mental health. Now 10, he has serious anxiety attacks whenever someone touches him and is unable to attend school full-time.

The school district says it only had B's safety in mind when the secretaries restrained him. The boy had a history of running away, and they wanted to keep him from harm.

District spokesman Doug Strachan told ctvbc.ca that he could not comment on the allegations in the family's complaint while it is before the tribunal.

The allegations in the complaint have yet to be proven. The tribunal has issued a publication ban on the name of the boy and his mother, as well as the school at the centre of the complaint.