Don Healy/Canwest News Service Amie Rivest kisses her son Ryan Coomber while she reads a book to him in the pediatrics ward of the Regina General Hospital,
A five-year-old Saskatchewan boy who lost a leg and now walks with a prosthetic limb has been bullied off his school bus, his father says.
Rather than confront the bullies and their parents to stop the harassment, the Prairie South School Division instead told the boy he wouldn't be allowed to take the bus anymore, Robert Coomber says.
"It's just a shame that in his five years, he has to be a victim over and over again," Mr. Coomber told CBC of his son Ryan, who lost his left leg in a lawn tractor accident in 2008.
He said his son has been riding the bus from the family's home in the small town of Willow Bunch, Sask., to preschool in Assiniboia, about 40 kilometres away, for the past eight months and had experienced bullying before, mainly because of his prosthetic.
But it wasn't until May 4, when Ryan stepped off the bus with a black eye, that Mr. Coomber decided it was time to try to put an end to the bullying.
"I asked him what had happened. He said one of the older kids had yelled at him to shut up and punched him clean in the eye," said Mr. Coomber, noting that the student who allegedly punched his son was around 14 years old and "six-foot" tall.
Despite calling the RCMP and attempting to speak to the parents of the other students on the bus, Mr. Coomber says he got no satisfactory answers.
When he then approached the bus driver and the school's principal, he was referred to the school division.
"I asked for the child to be disciplined," he told CBC.
"I asked for him to be suspended from school [to] teach him a lesson because there's a zero tolerance for bullying.
"[But instead] we were told Ryan will no longer be on the bus, that it's not safe for him or my daughter and that we have to drive them the round trip."
He said the superintendent suggested the school division pay for the cost of the Coombers driving Ryan and his sister to school.
Mr. Coomber has now asked for the resignations of the bus driver, principal, and the superintendent, saying his family was "let down at each step."
He is also considering taking legal action against the school division.
Dawn Blaus, a spokeswoman for the Prairie South School Division, told the National Post that a local privacy act prevented her from discussing individual student concerns.
However, she said, "we definitely take any reports of bullying seriously."
A statement posted on the school division's website yesterday said it had a "number of facts that differ greatly from the account provided publicly."
"As a school division, we do not try to resolve concerns through the media," the statement said.
"The investigation may confirm the report or it may refute it. Either way, we don't talk about it in the media and we don't share the information with anyone beyond those who are permitted and required to have it."
The school division said many of its schools had participated in anti-bullying and anti-violence projects.
On Tuesday, Ken Krawetz, Saskatchewan's Education Minister, told reporters after Question Period at the legislature that bus drivers are responsible for keeping passengers safe.
"The position that we have is that we want to ensure that there are safe, caring and respectful schools -- that's No. 1," he said.
"In this case the Prairie South board of education is going to be looking at the incident, the circumstances, the families and are doing an investigation," he said.
"So, until that is complete, I don't think the board of education will be jumping to any conclusions.
"The short-term solution, I guess, was to ensure that there would be no further antagonism between students and to ensure that the parents were able to drive the student to school."
kewallace@nationalpost.com
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