TURNERS FALLS — Parents of two children involved are criticizing the handling of an incident that happened Friday at Montague Elementary School.
Connie Forcier of Turners Falls said her 9-year-old son and his best friend were attacked by four fellow fourth-graders during recess.
Forcier said her son was punched at least five times in the arm by one boy and pushed to the ground repeatedly by another.
The other two boys called her son, a number of racial and homophobic slurs, according to Forcier.
Insults were also directed at her son’s friend, but Forcier said he was not physically assaulted. She feels these actions constitute assault and hate crimes, and she is looking into her legal options.
Forcier said she feels the school staff failed to keep her son and his friend safe and failed to notify her immediately. She found out about the incident from the children after school when she arrived to pick up her son and his friend.