Devan Bracci-Selvey’s mom says “everyone” failed her bullied son.

Shari-Ann Selvey spoke with reporters outside her Hamilton home Wednesday, two days after she witnessed the fatal stabbing of her 14-year-old son on Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School property. Selvey said her son was bullied since the beginning of the school year and while she reported the harassment to the school, she believes her son was failed at every turn.

“Everyone failed my son,” Selvey said through tears as two friends wrapped their arms around her. “Even I did. I tried to save him and I couldn’t. I couldn’t get to him in time.”

Selvey didn’t want to speak to details of the stabbing but said she received a call from her son Monday about people “bothering him.”

The bullying started on the second day of school when he was allegedly jumped by kids who tried to steal his bike and his friend’s bike. But Bracci-Selvey told his friends to run and let the kids take his bike instead, she said.

“That’s the heart of Devan. He saved his friends,” she said.

He was bullied by the same group ever since, making the past month “hell,” she said.

Police say investigators are aware of an incident involving the victim and a bike theft but they don’t have evidence linking the accused in the stabbing to the theft. But police have said they are looking into whether bullying played a role in his death.

Two people — a 14-year-old boy and 18-year-old man — are charged with first-degree murder in connection to Bracci-Selvey’s stabbing. Their names can’t be released due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act and a publication ban.

Selvey said schools want people to believe there’s “zero tolerance” for bullying, but “it’s not true and no one’s held accountable for it. It keeps happening. And then ... and then stuff like this happens.”

Manny Figueiredo, director of education with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, confirmed Selvey and her son reported bullying to the administration. Staff “responded,” but he could not confirm further details, saying that was part of the police investigation.

Figueiredo said a safe schools inquiry into Bracci-Selvey’s death will take place after police finish gathering evidence. The inquiry will help staff understand if it “met expectations of what’s expected of us in our role.”

Meanwhile, other parents are raising similar concerns to Selvey’s about bullying.

Samantha Heinbecker says bullying has been so bad at Sir Winston Churchill that she felt forced to pull her Grade 11 son and Grade 9 daughter from classes about two weeks ago.

The problem is allegedly a group of girls who she claims have been bullying both of her kids, including shoving into lockers, verbally accosting, punching and blowing smoke in their face.

The “last straw” was when one girl allegedly threatened to “slice my daughter’s throat,” she said.

She reported the incident to police, she said.

Heinbecker said she was repeatedly told by school administration and the board that they would talk to the kids — but nothing ever seemed to change.

Pressed on the issue of bullying at the school, Figueiredo said, “I know how hard the administration has worked to change the culture.”

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Shawn Wagar, whose son was close friends with Bracci-Selvey, said he went to the school at least four times this year to complain about the bullying of his son and Bracci-Selvey.

“Nothing was being done,” Wagar said.

Wagar said things came to a head on Monday after he got a call from his fiancée and Bracci-Selvey’s mom. The kids had called them to come to the school, but after the women arrived, they called Wagar to act as an intermediary between the boys and their alleged harassers, he said.

“I went there as a concerned parent to help my friend,” he said.

But things “just exploded.”

Wagar tried to get them to be quiet and talk one at a time, asking why they were bothering the boys. They told him to “get in your lane,” he said.

Moments later, Wagar was pepper sprayed.

Wagar went into the school to clean pepper spray out of his eyes.

Shortly after, he learned Bracci-Selvey had been stabbed.

Outside Shari-Ann Selvey’s home Wednesday, neighbours and friends continued to gather and show support for the family. Selvey and her daughter, Karissa, left in the morning to bring clothes for the boy to the funeral home.

Bracci-Selvey’s friend Mikey, 14, who didn’t want to give his last name, said his friend was so badly bullied he sometimes wouldn’t play outside.

“It’s a huge problem,” said Mikey of bullying at the school.

Bracci-Selvey was a “peacekeeper” who tried to resolve conflict with words, he said.

Selvey, speaking to reporters, said

hadn’t slept since the day her son was stabbed.

“Every time I close my eyes, it’s there,” she said. “If I don’t close my eyes, I can’t relive it.”