A Canadian family has won a human rights case against the Ottawa school board for not addressing a student’s threatening antisemitic behavior toward their son.
The complaint was filed with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario six years ago by the parents of David Armitage, who was a teenager when the abuse took place, CBC News reported.
According to the decision in the family’s favor released by the tribunal, in 2015 when Armitage was 17-years old, “his educational environment was poisoned by the threats, assaults, and discriminatory conduct of another student (“AB”), including conduct that was antisemitic in nature.”
Armitage was harassed by the other student with racist, violent and pornographic rants, including threats invoking the Holocaust, Nazis and Hitler, despite the fact that he told his classmate he was not Jewish, the tribunal wrote in its decision.
“Although the applicant is not Jewish, he was personally targeted by AB and the antisemitism was a factor in poisoning his educational environment,” the tribunal said.
“As soon as the applicant reported his experiences, AB was suspended from school pending investigation for possible expulsion. Two days later the applicant’s family car was vandalized with profanity and a swastika. Charges were laid under the Youth Criminal Justice Act… for the threats and assaults against the applicant. No charges were laid at that time for the damage to the car or other acts of vandalism AB was suspected of carrying out at school.”
After a Nazi symbol was carved into the car, Armitage was scared to the extent that he slept in his parents’ bedroom, tribunal adjudicator Leslie Reaume wrote.
Armitage finished his last semester of high school online and did not attend the June 2106 graduation ceremony due to worry of running into AB, who had been allowed to return to school after his suspension ended.
Reaume ruled that the school board was wrong to readmit AB without properly consulting Armitage, who had said that he felt threatened by the student.
"There was no assessment of [Armitage's] experiences, his ongoing fears, the supports he would need and the likely impact on his ability to perform effectively at school during what was described as a critical semester," Reaume wrote.
According to CBC News, a year after Armitage experienced the threatening behavior from the student, he was arrested for a series of racist graffiti incidents. He was sentenced to time in custody after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including inciting hatred, mischief against religious buildings, threatening conduct and weapon possession.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)