'It's scary': says mom of son returning to school where friend was stabbed to death

Fear — that's the word Miranda Finlayson says comes to mind when she thinks about her son heading back to the same school where one of his best friends was stabbed.

"It all happened there. How do I know that something is not going to happen to him?" she asked during a visit to her home this week. "It's scary. Very scary."

Finlayson's 14-year-old son Mikey Mcentee was one of Devan Selvey's closest friends — one of the "Three Stooges" who spent hours together playing video games and riding their bikes and scooters around the neighbourhood.

Selvey, a Grade 9 student at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School was stabbed to death behind the school on Oct. 7.

Two brothers, a 14-year-old and 18-year-old, are charged with first-degree murder. Police allege the 14-year-old is the person who stabbed Devan.

The teen's death has kick-started conversations about bullying across the province and Canada. Here in Hamilton the public school board voted unanimously to set up an independent, three-person panel to review how it handles bullying prevention, intervention, reporting and responding.

"We take the safety and well-being of our students and staff seriously and know that ... we can always do more to help improve the communities where we live and work," stated Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) chair Alex Johnstone.

Finlayson says she sees the board's actions as too little too late.

"They could've saved that boy and they didn't," she said. "They're late. Too damn late."

Still, it's a start, and Finlayson says she's willing give the board a chance, but they have a lot of work to do.

Mikey spoke to media in the days after his friend's death and he's received a lot of attention from other students since returning to school, according to his mom.

She said the board has put a safety plan in place to make sure he's looked after, but she still worries.

"He has a cell phone, that gives me piece of mind cause he can communicate and tell me what's wrong," said Finlayson, adding after Devan's death she thought about home schooling all three of her kids to avoid bullies.

The HWDSB declined to provide any details about what it's doing to manage relations between students following the stabbing, citing privacy concerns.

A letter from Churchill principal Marco Barzetti the day after the attack said social workers and victim's services were at the school to support students and staff.

"This crisis response will continue in the school, including support from social workers as well as some police presence," he wrote at the time.

'I just wish I got to spend more time with him'

Despite what happened and all the unwanted attention he's experiences, Finlayson says he doesn't want to change schools.

"He said Devan would have wanted him there," she explained.

During a recent visit to his house, Mikey wasn't saying much.

Finlayson says it's been that way since the stabbing. Now he rides his scooter for hours, often back and forth past Devan's house that's just down the road.

"[Devan] only had a small circle of trust, and if you were in that circle, he would defend you like a family member. He would be like a lioness protecting her cub," said Mikey during Devan's funeral on Oct 12, which he attended along with hundreds of others. 

"I just wish I got to spend more time with him."

After the funeral, Mikey was given a cross-shaped pendant containing some of his friend's ashes.

The fact that his friend's remains could be sitting in his drawer or hanging from his neck is something Leeman says the teen is still trying to understand.

"He's very angry."