Briar MacLean Reprimanded for Tackling Knife-Wielding Classmate: School 'Doesn't Condone Heroics'
A student thinking he was doing the right thing by tackling a knife-wielding classmate found himself in the principal's office receiving a lecture on what he actually should have done, which was nothing.
Briar MacLean, 13, was sitting in his classroom when he noticed a boy harassing another student. He said he "heard the flick" of a knife being opened and "heard them say there was a knife." Briar then got up from his desk and pushed the student down, effectively preventing him from hurting anyone else.
"I got called to the office and I wasn't able to leave until the end of the day," Briar told The National Post. He spent the rest of his day in the principal's office, and his mother, Leah O'Donnell, received a phone call from the vice-principal.
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"They phoned me and said, 'Briar was involved in an incident today,' that he decided to 'play hero' and jump in," O'Donnell said. She was told that Briar acted inappropriately and should have informed a teacher of the situation instead of taking matters into his own hands.
"I asked: 'In the time it would have taken him to go get a teacher, could that kid's throat have been slit?' She said yes, but that's beside the point. That we 'don't condone heroics in this school,'" O'Donnell added.
The Calgary school where the incident took place issued a statement clarifying that Briar was "in no way disciplined."
"The student who reportedly intervened was asked to remain in the office to explained what happened but was in no disciplined. Two students were suspended as a result of their behavior in this incident. It is not recommended that students ensure their own safety. There was a teacher nearby who could have been asked to assist before the third student became involved," the Board of Education said in a letter on the school's website.
However, O'Donnell is proud of Briar's actions and wants him to know he did the right thing, regardless of the school's treatment.
"If someone were punching me in the face, I'd want somebody to stop them," O'Donnell told Sun News.
