You’ve heard of helicopter parents, always hovering over their
children. I’d like to add a subcategory: The Apache Attack
Helicopter parent.
They strafe.
Such would describe the incendiary allegations made in statements of
claim by the mother of one student and the father of another who,
with their spawn, are seeking $1.6 million in damages over the
then-teenagers’ 20-day suspension from the private Toronto French
School six years ago.
The boys were disciplined over
an incident where they got into a fist fight with another teen
who did not attend their school but had been on the property
earlier. Omar Elgammal snatched a backpack in the commons room
belonging to a “visitor student” and met up with Danial Velshi
outside. This occurred after the visitor, who hadn’t signed in,
allegedly made racial slurs, calling Velshi’s mother a “maid,” in
apparent reference to her Filipino heritage, then taunting Elgammal
by miming pulling a pin from a grenade and sneering: “What are you
guys going to do, call out Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah …”
The backpack was returned but the boys continued exchanging barbs as
they walked away. Punches were swung when they reached Cheltenham
Park. There were no weapons and no serious injuries.
It was a female student witness who reported the altercation to
school authorities the next day.
In the statement of claim — none of the allegations proven in court
— the plaintiffs assert that the visitor student was there that day
“supposedly to supply illicit drugs’’ to the aforementioned female
(because of the drug-dealing reference, the Star is not naming that
individual) and, further, the female student had arranged to meet
with the boy in the park to provide payment by “apparently…
performing oral sex on him.”
So how’s that for a blast of rumour and accusation?
The parents and their sons are furious over the racial slings that
reportedly provoked this whole mess and the student assembly that
followed, wherein the offenders — their identities never revealed by
the school principal or the headmaster, who are named in the civil
suit — were described as bullies and thugs and the Holocaust invoked
against student bystanders who did nothing to stop the fight. But
it’s okay, evidently, to slag the female student as slutty and
characterize the visitor student as a drug-dealer, with no
supporting evidence.
Sex and drugs and Islamophobia and Nazis, oh my. To say nothing of
profound over-dramatization of a skirmish among private school
students — as all involved were — that got two 14-year-old Grade 9
students, Elgammal and Velshi, tossed for 20 days.
Never too early, it would seem, to school your kids about
entitlement and nurturing a grievance, or that maybe fisticuffs
aren’t the answer to racist trash talking. Or maybe that they should
man up — boy up? — over an incident long in the past, with both
young men now in university. And that perhaps teenagers are wildly
immature, frequently saying stupid stuff a lot worse than this, and
that a wise parent might use the opportunity as a teaching moment
rather than seize on it for a lawsuit.
But the families have taken the view that the boys wouldn’t have
been so heavily punished had they not been Muslim, with school
authorities not fully comprehending the hurt caused that sparked the
mini melee. As
Danial Velshi testified earlier this week, the takeaway he
absorbed from this unfortunate experience is that “the world is
unfair and life is unfair.” Well duh. Further: “If you’re a
minority, it’s more likely that it will be unfair.”
Ditto if you’re a female, I guess. Or fat. Or a Goth. Or otherwise
unconventional. Or not so well off that Mummy and Daddy send you to
a private school, paying annual fees of around $20,000 in the belief
that relationships forged there could further career advancement
later in life.
On Friday, however, their lawyer’s bid to bring in a witness — a
sociology professor from Montreal — to testify about racial
profiling and Islamophobia was rejected by Ontario Superior Court
Justice Elizabeth Stewart. She ruled that expert opinion was not
necessary to “understand and appreciate the matters at issue” in the
judge-alone trial.
It should be noted that, when the principal interviewed four
students who had witnessed the fight, not one of them mentioned the
racial slurs as motivation for the little rumble in the park. That
only arose in a second round of inquiries. Nor did Elgammal when
first questioned. Indeed, Elgammal — suspended on three previous
occasions for disciplinary problems — denied there had been any
altercation at all, only changing his story when informed that his
parents were being summoned. Velshi conceded the boys had struck the
visitor student.
As the statement of defence says: “School authorities had good
reason to seriously doubt the truth of the allegations of racist
comments given … the change of stories by witnesses, the falsehoods
told by Omar Elgammal, the failure of Danial Velshi to mention any
such racial comments when first interviewed as to the circumstances
of the case and the discipline history of Omar Elgammal. The TFS
authorities further considered that even if such remarks had been
made, it did not justify an assault that occurred at least several
minutes later and then only after (the visitor student) was pursued
to Cheltenham Park.”
There is one other factor that likely contributed to the launch of
the civil suit, but a publication ban covers that evidence.
Both Elgammal and Velshi subsequently withdrew from the school as
authorities were weighing whether they should be expelled.
On Friday, court heard from Elgammal’s sister, Yasmine, a Toronto
French School graduate (as is another brother), who now works as a
commodities trainer for her family’s company.
Despite living in the same house as her brother, Yasmine testified
that she couldn’t remember how many times Omar had been suspended
and knew nothing about the “behavioural contract” he was under with
the Toronto French School because of previous issues. She did recall
how upset her brother had been about the incident. “He couldn’t
understand why he was being punished so severely.” She also said her
brother’s stutter had become “much more pronounced” afterwards.
Following the school assembly to which the parents have so heatedly
objected, students were divided into groups to further discuss the
affair and ask questions. One of the groups included Velshi’s older
brother, and the transcript of that conversation is included in
court documents. It is evident several of the students thought the
punishment too severe.
Female voice: “I’m going to be, like my (inaudible) is so
embarrassed to send me to this establishment, the way you have been
treated the students … jump to conclusions and did not present the
committee of all the racism — innocent until proven guilty.”
Male voice: “One kid. I hate this school.”
Male voice: “The other kid threw the first punch anyways.”
Female voice: “Propaganda.”
Female voice: “They randomly jump as soon as one person comes and
says, this happened, they’re like, oh my God, all these people are
wrong doers because they didn’t bring it up.”
Female voice: “I really have to go to the ladies room. Can we be
excused?”
Male voice: “I want to f----g leave. I have a spare.”
Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday
and Saturday.