By Dominic Abassi

RCMP investigating after student assaulted in school

Jun 8, 2016 | 4:26 PM

The RCMP’s school liaison officer is looking into an alleged assault at Nanaimo’s John Barsby Secondary.

Cell phone video surfaced of a grade 9 student being attacked by three 12th graders last Friday in the school. The fight was sparked by disparaging comments that may have been posted to a social media site, according to police.

The 15 year old boy was left with a concussion and bruising.

Const. Gary O’Brien says the investigation has two parts.

“Of course we have the criminal component to it, then there’s also the school based sanctions,” said O’Brien.

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“Primarily we’re working with the school to gather all the facts we can to assist in determining what exactly happened.”

O’Brien says the school liaison officer is talking to students and monitoring social media.

“We want to make sure there’s no repercussions from that, we often see that in school based assaults. So she is engaging the youth and monitoring the social media sites, as well as working closely with the teachers.”

O’Brien says police quite frequently investigate school based fights, but often it doesn’t meet the threshold for charges.

No charges have been laid at this point in relation to this incident.

The accused students are away from school while the investigation continues, according to an SD68 official. However, they haven’t been suspended.