A Winnipeg child who has faced bullying at his school held a protest on Monday morning to stand up for himself.

Austin Young, 12, led a rally next to John Pritchard School, where he was backed by around 15 family members and strangers moved by his call to action.

Austin Young, 12, says he took this photo after juice was squirted on him by boys replicating a sex act. (Austin Young/Facebook)

His demand may help bring in new anti-bullying measures at his River East school, after his mother met with the principal during her son's protest.

The Grade 7 student's demonstration arose after he took to his Facebook page last Friday to decry what he called inaction by his school after a number of boys squirted juice on him, replicating a sexual act, he said.

His post has been shared more than 1,400 times on Facebook.

"I honestly hated it," said Young, standing outside the fenced schoolyard where he said he's been bullied repeatedly.

He wasn't satisfied by the response from his principal, either.

"All she did was make them apologize, which is forced, and she made the kid clean my shoe."

Anxiety struggles

He doesn't think the school has done enough to stop the harassment.

Last year, he struggled with anxiety because of bullying, and his doctor recommended he step away from school for a couple of days until he received counselling.

"This year I had proof. They didn't do anything about it," Young said.

River East Transcona School Division superintendent and CEO Kelly Barkman said the responsible students have been reprimanded. They met with the vice-principal, their parents were informed and the boys received "school-based consequences," with privileges taken away.

Barkman is satisfied the school acted appropriately, but he said the building needs to become a safe environment for Young.

"We have to talk not only about consequences, but we have to talk about how to deal with it," he said.

The school asked the boy's parents to have the posts removed from Facebook because other people were making aggressive comments against school staff, Barkman said.

The school did not intervene in the protest, he said.

"My understanding is he took that upon himself to go ahead and do that, which I can understand and appreciate and empathize with."

Young's mother, Kathryn Young, said she was satisfied with her conversation Monday morning with John Pritchard principal Barbara Bowles, who directed CBC's questions to the school division.

Around 15 people rally in support of Austin Young, 12, who says his school was not doing enough about the bullying he's faced. (Gary Solilak/CBC)

"We're going to work on how he's going to start his anti-bullying campaign in the school and they might do some kind of social club and have some people that he can talk to if he's having some issues," Young said

She said she's proud of her boy for defending himself — he decided to write the Facebook posts on his own.

It was left to him whether he wanted to take the posts down on Sunday.

The encouragement from complete strangers made the 12-year-old feel pretty good about himself, his mom said.

"He's having a lot of support and I said he doesn't have to take it down," she said.

The messages were removed after Monday's rally.

Austin Young held a protest outside John Pritchard school because he said it's not doing anything about bullying. 1:45

With files from Jillian Taylor