A Mississauga mother is looking for answers after her seven-year-old son was allegedly sexually assaulted by another student at his school, and she wasn’t made aware of the reported incident until the Children’s Aid Society notified her days later.
The mother says the school didn’t inform her of the incident, and she only heard about it from the Children’s Aid Society days later.
However, the school board says that the principal of the school was following the law when he reported the incident to the CAS.
The alleged incident took place last week at Metropolitan Andrei Catholic School.
The mother, who can’t be identified in order to protect her child’s identity, says her seven-year-old son was sexually assaulted by a 10-year-old student at the school.
The mother alleges the 10-year-old “pulled down his pants, asked my son to pull down his pants, told my child they’re going to have sex.”
She added: “My son said no, and the other boy basically was really aggressive with him.”
But the mother said school officials never told her anything about the incident.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board told CTV Toronto that the school principal was made aware of the allegations last Friday and he immediately called the Children’s Aid Society.
The mother of the seven-year-old told CTV Toronto she received a call from the Peel Children’s Aid Society five days after the incident.
Now she is wondering why she didn’t at least receive a courtesy call about the alleged incident.
“I’m a sole provider for my child,” she told CTV Toronto. “How am I not aware that my child is being sexually assaulted in school?”
When contacted by CTV News, school board spokesperson Bruce Campbell says that the principal followed proper procedure in immediately contacting the Children’s Aid Society.
“I think at the school level … there’s a bit of a surprise that the parents weren’t advised a little bit earlier, but taking direction from CAS, we don’t have contact with the parents,” Campbell said in an interview with CTV Toronto.
Still, the mother of the seven-year-old child believes common sense demands that she should at least have received a phone call from the school.
“They’re taking four, five, six days to let me know that this is happening, because it’s under investigation?” she said. “That’s unacceptable.”
On Thursday, the mother was told the CAS file on her son’s case was closed because it was classified as peer-on-peer interaction.
The CAS has offered counselling services for her son and for the other boy involved.
Peel police confirm the complaint was investigated but it was not considered criminal due to the age of the children involved.
A CAS worker told CTV Toronto that since the incident involves such young children, it wouldn’t be as much of a priority than if it was an adult who had allegedly assaulted a child.
With files from CTV Toronto’s John Musselman
