Reports of 'swarming' at N.B. high school were inaccurate, principal says - CBC.ca

The multiple social media posts spread like wildfire: A swarm of about 40 teenagers had allegedly taunted and attacked another teenager at Fredericton High School, leaving him bleeding on the ground.

The posts, which prompted a police investigation, told a dramatic story of high school violence in a week that had already seen a vicious brawl and knife incident at Oromocto High School, warnings of the "potential for violence" at both Fredericton and Oromocto high schools and a subsequent police presence at both of the schools.

But according to Fredericton High School principal Stephanie Underhill Tomilson, the "swarming" wasn't a swarming at all.

In an interview Monday with CBC New Brunswick News, Underhill Tomilson recounted a different version of the events of last Thursday.

Underhill Tomilson said that at around noon hour, staff heard that there was a fight was underway.

Police were already onsite due to previous information, received the night before, about an unspecified "potential for violence" at the school, so Underhill Tomilson asked them if they'd heard or seen anything.

They had not, she said, so they walked around the perimeter of the campus to have a look. They saw nothing untoward, no groups of students milling about and buzzing excitedly.

"Of course, by the time you go outside ... the fight is normally done," she said. But "we met up with the teacher and she said, 'I was there. I saw the whole thing. I pulled up in my car. ... I blared my horn. I can identify who they are.' "

Police cruisers were already on scene at the school last Thursday when they were alerted that a fight had broken out at noon hour. (CBC News)

'Have you seen this Facebook post?'

From there, she said, they went back in to check the cameras and begin going through the various feeds.

"And then all of a sudden we have a teacher that comes up to us and says, 'Have you seen this Facebook post?' And so we took a look at it and we're like, what? A swarm?"

It was mystifying, Underhill Tomilson said. 

"If there was a swarm, there would have been more action. We would have heard about it," she said. "The kids would be talking about it after lunch. There's nothing. Did we miss it? And so we had to go through other areas with our cameras to try to figure out where did this happen and how did this happen."

Eventually, she said, it became clear to her that the incident the teacher had seen and that was captured by two different cameras was the only incident that had transpired.

And it was "totally different" from the swarming that Facebook posts were reporting.

According to Underhill Tomilson, it was a fight between two boys, one of whom attends the school and one of whom does not.

There was a group of about 16 kids observing the fight, not the reported swarm of 40 with multiple students jumping in to punch and kick the boy, and the boy was not left bleeding on the ground.

"It lasted just over a minute and the teacher was there," she said. "He was not bleeding."

Violence is never OK, principal says

Underhill Tomilson stressed that she is not trying to make light of what did occur.

"Violence is never OK," she said. "It doesn't matter if it was a swarm of 40 or a fight between two. It's always a big deal."

Her concern is for the way the event was "blown out of proportion" and then widely shared on social media, including personal details of the teens involved and resulting in personal attacks on staff at the school.

"I have a post here that has nine pages of comments personally about me and my children, about [vice-principal] Fred Connors, another vice-principal and his children. … It has not been easy for us, and what's difficult is that what came about didn't even happen like that."

Underhill Tomilson said the school has been increasingly dealing with the fallout from often-inaccurate social media posts, and it has taken a toll on staff.

"I said to our team, we're in the right, so … we're going to have to hold our tongue and ride this out," she said. "But we're starting to get tired."

As for reports that the volunteer yoga instructor who initially posted about the incident was let go, Underhill Tomilson said that was because of the details shared about the teens involved.

"That was a problem because we don't put any information, as volunteers or teachers, about kids on social media."

If a teacher had made those posts, she said, the matter would have gone "straight to human resources."

"But because it was a volunteer in the building, we did ask that volunteer not to return."  

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Reports of 'swarming' at N.B. high school were inaccurate, principal says - CBC.ca
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