It's 10:30 a.m. in a Spruce Grove, Alta., school and "fight club" is about to go down.

About a metre from the office of Woodhaven Middle School, a 14-year-old boy finds himself surrounded.

"I want to fight," the school bully shouts. "Who can I fight?"

The lone kid at his locker is singled out and challenged.

Hours later, after broken bones and hospital visits, the victim told his mother he felt he had no choice.

"If you say no to these people who want to fight — members of this 'fight club' — you're deemed a loser, or you have a target on your back," the boy's mother told CBC News, quoting her son's words. "Your social life is completely over if you do not participate."

Given that kind of pressure, she said, her son agreed to do something he had never done before. He agreed to fight.

'There was blood everywhere'

The challenger wanted to do it at lunch. But Tanya, who asked CBC not to publish her last name, said her son made an excuse and went home for lunch instead.

Later, he didn't want to go back to school. His mother insisted, and drove him. At 2:30 p.m. that May afternoon, he sent a text message saying he wanted to come home.

His mother said no.

An hour later, she was in the backyard gardening.

"He walked through our front door right to the back door and he collapsed on the deck," Tanya said. "And there was blood everywhere."

Her son said he had "biffed" it on his skateboard. But his clothes weren't ripped, and his mother could see he had been punched in the face.

And that's how Tanya learned about "fight club."

"We all figure our kids are safe at school," she said. "I'm re-evaluating that."

The boy who broke her son's nose and fractured his cheekbone, Tanya said, had been involved in many fights before. The fights were organized and publicized on social media, where cell phone videos have circulated this spring.

Tanya said she feels angry and guilty about what happened to her son. She's angry that the school did nothing to warn parents about "fight club" and feels guilt over making her son go back to school that day.

"If we would have known that this boy resided at the school, and this is not his first offence, if I was aware of that, then maybe I could have seen through his [wanting to stay home]," she said.

Parents weren't told about 'fight club'

"We as parents would be aware that there's a 'fight club' that exists here in Spruce Grove, and how it works."

But parents weren't aware, she said.

RCMP are investigating at least three known cases involving students, mainly from Spruce Grove Composite High School, said RCMP Cpl. Kimberly Mueller.

"We're trying to get to the bottom of how many of these have happened, who's been involved, why have they been involved?" Mueller said.

Parents have posted their concerns on social media.

The Parkland School Division declined to do an interview on Tuesday and instead issued a statement.

"We are aware of the social media activity recently referring to a 'fight club' in Spruce Grove and Stony Plain. We can confirm these incidents involving community youth are not happening at school and not happening during school hours."

'They were well aware'

Tanya is angry the school refuses to shoulder some responsibility for what happened to her son.

The fight didn't happen on school property, she said, but it certainly was planned there.

"It happened three feet away from the school office, in fact, at 10:30 in the morning," she said.

Her son is now recovering at home from his injuries. He has not returned to school since the fight on May 3.

Tanya did go to the school office to tell them what had happened to her son.

"They weren't surprised," she said. "They were well aware that there's a fight club."

She said the boy who beat up her son has since been expelled.

But she wonders why the school looked the other way for so long.

"My understanding is that this boy has had many fights," she said. "They just haven't been reported between the parents and police. I do believe that the school was aware that this boy was a risk, a high risk."

No one can consent to having their nose broken or bones broken. - Cpl. Kimberly Mueller.

RCMP say any youth caught in fight-club type activities — either as spectators or participants — could end up being charged with a criminal offence.

"Some of these things start out as a consensual fight, however, no one can consent to having their nose broken or bones broken, leg broken," Mueller said.

Possible charges include assault, assault causing bodily harm and causing a disturbance.

Mueller said this is the third spring she has heard of a "fight club" being organized in the area.

Tanya is concerned about what happens after her son returns to school.

"I'm more worried about any backlash and having a target on his back," she said.

She's also worried that if the "fight club" goes on, that someone else will get badly hurt.

"These boys have more control in the four walls of these schools than any principal or teachers do," she said. "Because otherwise, wouldn't these kids be going to the adults and the authorities? That's how much control these boys have."