Publication ban imposed on details about Halifax student who stabbed school staff

CITYnews halifax / By Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

HALIFAX — The mental health of a 16-year-old who stabbed two people at a Halifax high school was the subject of a sentencing hearing Wednesday, but details about his medical history were immediately banned from publication.

The teen, whose identity is already protected from publication because of his age, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of aggravated assault in Nova Scotia Youth Justice Court. The two victims — employees of Charles P. Allen High School in suburban Bedford, N.S. — were taken to hospital with serious wounds on March 20, 2023, but both have recovered.

During Wednesday’s hearing, provincial court Judge Elizabeth Buckle approved an additional ban to prevent public disclosure of details from the testimony of two expert witnesses — a psychiatrist and a psychologist who provided treatment to the boy after he was arrested for the stabbings.

Buckle said the additional ban was needed in this case because the boy’s name and photograph has been shared widely on social media and linked with previous online media reports that don’t have that sensitive information.

The judge said the new ban applies to details revealed in court about the boy’s family and medical history, including disclosures he made about his mental health during clinical treatment. Making such personal information public would interfere with the boy’s rehabilitation and reintegration into society, she said.

“This is a matter of damage control,” Buckle told the court. The ban also applies to details about the boy’s psychiatric history, but Buckle said general testimony could be reported.

The boy, who was 15 at the time of the offences, had originally pleaded not guilty to 11 charges, including attempted murder.

On Wednesday, Dr. Jose Mejia, a forensic psychiatrist with the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, testified about his interactions with the boy, which resulted in the submission of a psychiatric report to the court. Mejia, who studies anti-social, aggressive and psychopathic behaviours, talked at length about his interpretations of the boy’s psychiatric state, but those details are banned from publication.

When asked how long it would take to effectively deal with the boy’s issues, Mejia said that was unclear.

“It tends to be quite fluid,” he said. “It’s not something that’s going to be solved in a month. It could take several years …. At the end of the day, we depend completely on the individual wanting to do it.”

Mejia went on to suggest the 16-year-old is “at the perfect juncture” to deal with his challenges. “There’s a lot of development that still goes on,” Mejia told the court, referring to the boy’s maturation process. “People change a lot.”

The court was expected to hear a number of victim impact statements, but that plan was shelved until Aug. 19 because Crown and defence lawyers could not agree on redactions. As well, a psychologist is expected to testify about the teen’s mental state during the August hearing.

A statement of facts presented to the court earlier this year says that immediately before the stabbings, the boy was escorted to the school office by a security guard after he was spotted on surveillance footage putting up questionable posters on the school walls. No details were provided about the posters.

The court document says the security guard pulled a butterfly knife from the student’s school bag, then left the office with the weapon and called police.

At that point, the vice-principal heard the boy say: “My life is over, so it’s just as well to do this.” He pulled a folding knife from the bag and stabbed the vice-principal twice as he tried to escape.

Moments later, the boy emerged from the office and stabbed an administrative assistant in the back before fleeing the building.

Once outside, the student “cut his neck with the knife,” which he was still holding when police arrived, the statement says.

Shortly after the boy was arrested, a teacher inside the school told The Canadian Press that the student’s actions were considered out of character, though there had been recent signs something was wrong.

The teacher, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the school, said the boy had been previously caught ripping gay pride flags off of walls at school, which prompted earlier meetings with administrators.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2024.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press