A mother in Saskatoon is trying to help her son deal with an online bully.

"Heartbreaking doesn't cover it," said Dorrie Duncan, who has watched her 13-year-old son, Brandon, be bullied for more than a year.

The bully started bothering Brandon when they both attended the same Saskatoon elementary school. Since then the bully has switched schools and he's turned to Facebook to torment Brandon.

"This kid just will not leave Brandon alone," she said.

According to Duncan, the messages have ranged from name-calling to "trying to antagonize him to get him to go to the school park and fight."

When her son didn't respond to the messages and deleted them, the bully tried another route.

"When he couldn't get a response from Brandon off of Facebook, the kid actually started sending me messages," she said.

Those messages to her started in August.

"The first message he sent me was, 'You're a fat, ugly whore like your son.'"

The most recent Facebook bullying took place on her page this past Sunday, when she posted a picture of her son in his football uniform. The bully commented, within minutes of the picture being posted, calling her son a derogatory name.

However, the bullying has also spread to random phone calls to their home.

"I've had people here calling from unknown number asking for Brandon and as soon as I said, 'No, it's his mom,' they hang up."

This week, Duncan and her son went to Saskatoon police and filed a report. They have been asked to keep track of all messages the bully sends.

"Brandon actually started a notebook, where any time he gets a message or anything on Facebook or on X-Box or anything ... to keep track, to document it from who, how he was contacted and at what time and exactly what was said."

Duncan said the bully is also trying to turn some of Brandon's friends against him. One of those other kids sent Brandon a message through X-Box this week, calling Brandon a "snitch" for going to police and threatened to beat him up at school. Duncan said she drove Brandon to school the next day, informed the school staff and checked in with him at lunch.

Alyson Edwards with the Saskatoon Police Service said in cases of online bullying, officers will try to work with the families involved to attempt to reach an understanding. If there is enough evidence, officers will conduct an investigation and it could result in criminal charges of uttering threats or mischief if the behaviour is severe enough.

tburdeniuk@rawlco.com

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