ALMA, N.S. — On Sept. 13, 2018, Abby Falconer’s life dramatically changed.
“I was on the bus and one of the kids behind me was playing with my hair.”
She told him to stop, but he didn’t. Then she says he hit her over the head with a binder. The force was strong enough to cause her to chip a tooth.
As early as that night, her parents say they started to see more troubling side effects of the assault.
“After she got home that day, everything was fuzzy to her. Her memory was going,” says her father Travis Falconer.
Her symptoms since then have included constant headaches, problems focusing, swollen and purple feet, vision problems and hot flashes.
It took a few weeks, but Abby would eventually be diagnosed with a concussion and was referred to the concussion clinic in Antigonish.
No one really knows how serious concussions are until they have someone directly impacted, Travis said.
“When nothing was working (at the concussion clinic), she then referred her to a neurologist at the IWK,” says Abby’s mother Kelly Falconer.
That neurologist has been seeing her since March of 2019. For the months of April, May and June, Abby was put off school and the specialist helped her find ways to heal.
“He slowly brought her back to a livable life that she can go back to school,” Kelly said.
But there are still lasting effects.
“She’s not the same girl,” says Travis. “You see pieces of her coming back.”
How it was handled
While the Falconer family has been dealing with the stress of getting Abby’s health back, they say they’ve felt frustration with how the school handled the assault.
The incident happened on a Thursday and Kelly reported it to the school, Northumberland Regional High School, on Friday. She says she then contacted the school again the following Tuesday to make sure it had been dealt with.
“By email I was assured it was handled, but apparently they are not allowed to tell you how,” she said.
A couple weeks later Abby was going to a 4H activity where the other student was also going to be when according to Kelly he verbally assaulted Abby.
Kelly says she had enough at that point and went to the boy’s mother.
“His mother had no idea that he even had hit her two weeks ago,” Kelly said. “That’s when we knew the school hadn’t handled it.”
Kelly says the boy’s mother was apologetic and contacted the school herself to find out why she hadn’t been notified.
They found out that a school administrator had simply talked to the accused and that there had been no repercussions. Kelly said the school’s principal, who was not working at the time that the incident happened, has since apologized that it wasn’t taken more seriously.
Abby’s parents decided that since the school wasn’t going to take action that they would take legal action to prevent it from happening again. The result has been a restorative justice approach, which has brought the families together as well as school staff and police.
The teen who hit her is now going to do community service and will be presenting information on concussions and violence against women.
Still through the process, they’ve felt at times that those in authority, were minimizing what happened. While the Falconers don’t want to demonize the student or the school, they believe it’s important that incidents like this be taken seriously.
“It really affected everything in her life,” says Kelly. “She now has to play catchup to graduate with her friends.”
She hopes that in the future, the school will take incidents like this more seriously.
What do you do if you have concerns?
Jennifer Rodgers, communications manager for the Chignecto Central Regional Centre for Education said that CCRCE is committed to supporting parents and guardians in their efforts to resolve any questions or concerns.
“When a parent or guardian has a concern, the best place to start is with the student’s principal (or classroom teacher if the question or concern is classroom-related),” she stated. “In most instances, concerns and issues are resolved through an informal process of conversation and collaboration. This process may involve multiple conversations and exchanges of information and ideas at the school level. CCRCE values a relational approach where parent and student voice will be included in our work towards a solution.”
