The 13-year-old Salmo boy who falsely told police two weeks ago that someone had tried to abduct him made up the story in an attempt to avoid encountering bullies at school, according to his mother.
“It was completely out of his character to do anything like that,” the mother said, who wants to remain anonymous to protect the identity of her son.
“It was a serious bullying issue,” she explained, “and he was threatened on Facebook the week before.” She said it seemed odd that her son asked to walk to school that particular morning, as he’s usually dropped off at school.
She later learned that the request, along with his fabricated attempted-abduction story, was an attempt to avoid attending school that day.
She said her son later told her he never planned on going back to school.
In light of Anti-Bullying Day this week she felt it was important to share the details of the incident and the drastic measures her son took in order to steer clear of the bullying.
Below is the letter the family sent out to residents of Salmo after the incident:Our family would like to express our apologies for the child abduction scare and the emotion and fear that was generated from it.
We would like to extend our heart-felt thanks to the RCMP, community members, and parents that so quickly created an amazing support network.
If something like this were to happen here, we are very lucky to live where we do. We truly feel so thankful for this.
The amazing response from our community, surrounding communities, and the province as a whole proves that we all want the best for our children. Let’s protect our kids by talking to them about BULLYING and how important it is to TELL and GET HELP before the fear becomes too much for a child to handle and there are catastrophic consequences.
It is painfully obvious our son would have done ANYTHING to avoid another day of fear. We are so glad that everyone is safe.