Lucas DeCaluwe was sitting alone in his dad’s parked truck when he noticed police officers swarming the vehicle.
That social media post, the DeCaluwes allege, was the culmination of a years-long harassment campaign by teammates, allowed to happen by staff at the hockey academy pervaded by a toxic culture. A lawyer for one of the students said he will fight the lawsuit in court. One student’s family declined to comment and the third could not be reached.
“Victus Academy is not for everyone,” the website reads. “Successful applicants to Victus Academy will be those individuals who not only possess high level hockey skills and academic ability, but they must also be ready for the rigours and demands of this highly competitive school.” Gail says she and her husband didn’t know the full extent of the harassment at the time because their son didn’t share the details. But it became clear in the fall of 2019.
“One of the boys admitted to creating the fake Snapchat post in his interview with police,” says Gail, who reviewed the Crown’s brief detailing two criminal charges against her son for allegedly uttering death threats.
Hopefully the school and the teens involved in the bullying (and their parents) end up paying dearly.
he seems nice GFY POS
Mark mcivor
Bullying going on in a hockey locker room going unaddressed for years by the adults in charge!? Excuse me, I need to go clutch my pearls and faint.
boo hoo.
Liberal hacks.
One knows you never put all your eggs in one basket. the reality of being a pro athlete is like 1 in a million. Education is a must! Everyone has their hand out for big payouts for not being successful or having a plan b. Instead they retaliate, acts of violence against others.
What's published about the school on its website, including those who are credited as the founders and what their mission is, is quite the read. These people are bullies.
Well I wanted to read this but 🖕to your pay wall
No one here knows the details of this story, or where the truth lies. Due process people!
So devastating 😢 I hope he is doing okay
Well he must of made some kind of terroristic threats to have guns pulled on him .. of course that's not always the case sometimes bullying takes form of calling the ultimate bullies or protectors to give the victim a bullet lottery depending on his level of emotion he may win
What a garbled headline.
2 of the bullies, Even Klein and Madden Steen, currently play in the OHLHockey and will be protected to no end by HockeyCanada, the abuse protectors.The father said they were also protected by minor hockey associations and ALLIANCE_Hockey. Shame on all of these organizations!
PAYWALLED. It is fine to paywall. Because capitalism. And postmedia; rupertmurdoch, etc. But as a Canadian, you could at least include a warning.
The victim became the accused. Very sad. Hope they win the lawsuit.
I will have to take the time to read this article (provided it is not behind a paywall) - as the aspirations to play professional hockey being dashed by a takedown seems complex.
The commercial sport is all about being the biggest bully. This specific type of criminal malice has been on the rise since at least the 90's. Lie in a fashion that leaves the one being bullied arrested and charged! The ultimate humiliation.
We can't destroy young man dreams
Hockey players where the biggest bullies we had growing up. They have some form kf elitism
Everything about this breaks my heart. I hope the DeCaluwe family brings this academy to its knees, and Lucas finds the success he deserves.
The school is absolutely culpable if they allowed this. I hope the lawsuit brought by the young man and his family will be successful. Bullying can have severe & long lasting effects on a person & has driven many young ppl to suicide.
Private schools are all trash. It's all just got the super rich kids to make business connections later. Anyone deemed lower is harassed. Save your money, go to a regular school and get a trade. Learn how to invest in the stock market.
Thank God for the Star and CBCNews. Without them, there’d be no venue for whiney wussies to throw a pity party and cash-in on misplaced sympathies wimps
Dumb and proud
These awful schools need to be shut down. Same kind of thing at St Mike’s in Toronto a few years ago
yea look at this horrible bullying in hockey good thing news is free and not a paid subscription right
Two students fabricate a death threat (implied or otherwise) on behalf of this young man?! Where is the Crown on that? It's illegal to utter death threats, falsely report bomb threats, joke about bombing an aircraft when in line to board it...would like to hear a lawyer on this?
its gross how the Toronto Star is protecting the two young men who did this. I guess I'll name them
PrivateEducation always makes things better.
Hockey needs to be fixed. Ncaa is next
Of course the school will cover for anything that could tarnish their name.
Hockey culture strikes again.
Has any notable hockey players ever come from this school?
Не проявявам интерес.
SabrinaMaddeaux more hockey culture to write about?
Dreams of being a hockey star vs dreams of NOT being victimized for my PRIVATE medical health decision. The internet is forever bitches! ChurchOfCovid
Another st michaels
He dreamed of playing pro hockey. But he sucked. So his parents came up with another plan.
Hoc liq pogrom '83 (hac 1821 OT MAN
I would be sueing whoever made that false claim. Take them for everything
He dreamt of becoming a hoce superstar...wow I dreamt of becoming a mural adult evening class teacher to complement my wife who also disabled like myself was able enough to work as a laboratory cytologist..well you should have seen what followed that! Bullying..liq pogrom man '83
What a shocking story of bullying 😔 I hope his lawsuit is successful.
Sadly that's commonplace in hockey schools. The yuppie culture of hockey breeds this type of toxicity. I didn't play super high level but high enough to see this stuff happen.
Dreamt?
I'm not sure how lawsuits work in Canada in terms of how much is awarded as opposed to the amount asked but I hope he gets some form of justice.
I'm so proud of this young man and his parents suing that horrible hockey school. I wish them good luck and I support them 100%
The then 14-year-old hockey player, struggling with relentless bullying by teammates on his high school team, was on his way to an appointment with a sports psychologist when he was arrested. DeCaluwe said he had no idea why he had been arrested.