RCMP are recommending criminal charges against a high school student after a video surfaced showing two girls involved in a fight close to a school in Nanaimo.
The short video was posted after a pair of teens got into a physical fight near Wellington Secondary School.
“We have a report that we’re filing with [the] Crown to allege an assault charge against the suspect,” Cpl. Jon Stuart with the Nanaimo RCMP Youth Unit said.
One of the girl’s mothers said the pair used to be close friends.
“Obviously as a mother a lot of anger surrounded this, just wondering how it had escalated this bad,” Julie Neufeld told CTV News.
She admitted her daughter Brianna has caused problems in the past, but didn’t deserve the bruises, hairline calf fracture and concussion she received from this particular incident.
“I removed her from the school just for the sake of her safety,” Neufeld said.
The girl in the video who appears to be attacking Neufeld’s daughter was handed a two-day suspension from the school board and is being questioned by the RCMP.
But that girl’s mother, who didn’t want to be identified, says the online video was heavily edited and doesn’t show the complete picture.
According to the alleged assailant’s mother, the girl who claims to be the victim was actually the bully.
“Brianna actually jumped my daughter in the hall at school last year,” the other girl’s mom said. “This girl in particular took it upon herself to make my daughter’s life really difficult.”
The suspended girl’s mother says the two teens were never friends and that Brianna bullied her daughter to the point she was afraid to go to school.
She points to a different video taken in a Subway where Brianna appeared to attack another girl.
Brianna’s mother says her daughter realizes that was wrong.
“The best I can do is try to get her help for that, which she’s been accepting and fortunately with this event she does blame herself quite a bit,” Neufeld said. “It does haunt her a little bit in thinking that this was karma.”
What couldn’t be worked out between the two girls in the school will now be resolved in the courtroom.
With a report from CTV Vancouver Island's Gord Kurbis