Father alleges son was ‘threatened with weapons to get on his knees and kiss the feet of his attackers’

The Surrey School District is looking into an alleged assault of a Fraser Heights Secondary student (school pictured above). Photo: Facebook

A video has prompted Surrey RCMP and the school district to look into an alleged attack that is reported to have happened at Fraser Heights Secondary’s school grounds on Monday (June 3).

Paul Pedersen shared a video on social media and alleged that his son was attacked by “at least 10 older kids for an altercation that had nothing to do with him other than association to one of the involved parties.”

In the post, he alleged his son was “brought to the back area of the school near the tennis courts by a trusted friend no less and threatened with weapons to get on his knees and kiss the feet of his attackers and then kicked in the face afterwards.”

Pedersen said the incident happened on a pathway at the back of the school, between tennis courts and the school during lunch hour and was connected to an altercation that involved a firearm last Friday.

“The school was not put on lock down and parents were not notified,” Pedersen wrote, later adding: “This is what is happening in our local high school and our children are not being protected from preventable violence.”

In an interview with the Now-Leader Tuesday afternoon Pedersen said his son, while not injured, is upset and “dealing with the ramifications” of the incident, adding that his son “wasn’t feeling very safe” at school on Tuesday and was excused from his afternoon classes.

Surrey RCMP told the Now-Leader they are investigating, but are providing sparse details.

“All I can confirm at this point is that our school and youth team are looking into the issue,” said Sergeant Chad Greig. “We were made aware of the post this morning.”

Surrey school district spokesman Doug Strachan said Tuesday afternoon that he’s seen the video and that it was brought to the school’s attention Tuesday morning.

“We’re certainly following up with the student and the peers,” said Strachan. “It appears there are some kids there who aren’t Fraser Heights students.”

Strachan said it has not been determined if the incident took place on school property, and added the school is looking into it “to see what we can find out, what we can do and who may have been involved.”

“There’s trees and tennis courts and things that people might believe are school or city property,” he noted, but said that detail has not been confirmed.

Strachan was aware of an incident in the area last Friday, as mentioned in Pedersen’s post.

That, too, is being “followed up by the school, to see what information we can get.”

“There was an incident but nobody was hurt as far as we know,” said Strachan of the previous incident, adding “there was nothing that warranted a hold and secure and we’re following up on that as well.”



amy.reid@surreynowleader.com

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