A 13-year-old boy allegedly pointed what turned out to be a toy gun at students, and demanded their money, inside the bathroom of a Toronto middle school.
Toronto police say it happened on Jan. 17 at Lanor Junior Middle School, in the area of Brown’s Line and Evans Avenue, according to a release issued on Wednesday.
In two separate incidents on Tuesday, police say, the victims were inside the school’s bathroom, in the bathroom when the suspect pointed what appeared to be a gun and made a demand for money.
Both the victims and suspect are students at the school, according to police.
A replica toy firearm was recovered by police.
The 13-year-old boy has been charged with two counts of robbery with a weapon.
The child cannot be identified under the terms of the Youth Criminal justice Act.He is scheduled to appear in a Toronto court on Feb. 8, at 1 p.m.
Family and child therapist, Julia Swaigen, told Now Toronto that the incident will likely affect everyone in the community to varying degrees.
“My hope would be that this youth receives a response that will include the opportunity for restoration and the support needed to prevent any future occurrences,” Swaigen said in an email statement.
“For children or youth who were threatened in this case, there is a high likelihood that they felt a sense of real threat of injury or death and that can cause trauma. With the right support, trauma can often be overcome,” she added.
Swaigen noted that a combination of factors drive youth violence.
“Over-exposure to violence through real life experience or media, increased community stressors such as limited access to resources, and a cultural shift away from adult-child mentorship and toward reliance on one’s peer relationships,” she said. “This is problematic as developing children need adults in their lives who are empowered to care for and guide them.”
Swaigan added that as we are in the midst of a worsening mental health crisis many people are struggling.
“It is rare for mental health problems to cause people to be violent, but it’s important to consider the context in which we are seeing increased violence,” Swaigen said. “A lot of these problems start very early on and develop over many years because families don’t have enough support and there is a widespread misunderstanding or lack of prioritizing the true needs of developing children.”
