12-year-old Quebec boy dead after fight with 11-year-old female student

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http://ca.news./s/capress/071112/national/death_schoolyard

12-year-old Quebec boy dead after fight with 11-year-old female

student

Mon Nov 12, 7:34 PM

By Dene , The Canadian Press

ST-EUSTACHE, Que. - There were tears and a lot of unanswered

questions Monday after a 12-year-old Quebec boy was killed in a

playground fight with an 11-year-old female schoolmate.

The two were in a pushing match during the morning recess break when

it escalated into blows, according to police.

" It was an isolated quarrel, " said Normand Brulotte, spokesman for

police in St-Eustache, northwest of Montreal.

" One of the two people fell down and school staff intervened to give

first aid. Police and ambulance authorities were called. When they

got there, he was unconscious. "

Brulotte couldn't say what sparked the squabble or confirm reports

the boy suffered from cardiac problems.

The boy, a Grade 6 student whose name was not released, was taken to

the local hospital where he was pronounced dead.

" My teacher just told me that somebody died, " Olivier, nine, said as

he as and his brothers left school with their mother Monday

afternoon.

" They were fighting. "

Counsellors were brought in to classes to explain what happened.

Most of the students were in tears, Olivier said.

" It makes me sad, " he said as shocked parents hurried their children

into cars and away from the school. " It reminds me of the death of

my grandmother. "

His younger brother, seven-year-old , said he saw the fight.

" I saw a punch, " said his younger brother. " He was a little guy and

the person who hit him was a girl. "

Another student said the altercation escalated after the girl

insulted the boy's girlfriend and he responded with a verbal jab of

his own.

The girl was placed in the care of youth-protection officials but it

was not immediately clear how long she would remain there.

In a letter to parents, school principal Christiane Rainville said

the entire school community was rallying around the boy's family.

" The school is deeply distressed by this dramatic situation, "

Rainville wrote.

She said the school board sent a team of grief counsellors and a

nurse to the elementary school not long after the incident and that

they will remain available to the school community as long as is

needed.

" In the coming days, some children could react in ways normal in

such a situation, such as having fear, denial, anger, sadness or

difficulty sleeping, " Rainville wrote.

She urged parents to seek help for their children from the school if

needed.

Karine Champagne, Olivier's mother, said she was troubled she wasn't

called and informed by the school. She found out from her sons after

school and through the letter they had in their hands.

" If my son saw something, I want to know, " said Champagne, a

journalist for LCN, an all-news French-language TV station. " If he's

going to be unsettled, I want to know. "

She said she's spoken to her children about violence and tried to

instil in them that " conflicts should be settled with words, not

with fists. "

" A punch is a punch and it can be fatal, " she said. " That's what we

have to let them know.

Police spoke to children who witnessed the altercation, while the

provincial coroner's office and youth-protection services are also

investigating.