A father is accused of going after his son's bully at a Quebec school

A father who allegedly went after his son's apparent bully during a standoff outside a high school about 80 kilometers northeast of Montreal has been charged with assault and battery.

The incident drew the attention of Quebec's education minister, who said he wanted answers after the altercation involving several students was caught on video. In addition, parents at Ecole Pierre-De-Lestage in Berthierville, Que. is known to fight often.

In the video, at least three high school students, including a boy, can be seen being pushed while screaming. The boy gets up, but the story does not end there.

In the second video, the boy's father, who appears to have been abused, confronts the youths and shouts that if they touch his son again, he will put them down. The exchange ends with one of the students seemingly pushed into the snow.

Parents of school-going children say torture has become too common.

“I'm tired. I'm so tired,” said Sophie Girard, whose 16-year-old daughter was so abused that she considered taking her own life last year.

“He should kill himself every day,” they say. “At the beginning of the year, he received a message with a picture of you in class and said that he will send you to the hospital before the end of the year.

Education Minister Bernard Drainville asked the school's service center to look into the matter.

“It's very, very sad. I want to know what happened,” Drainville said Wednesday.

He said that since 2006, every school must have a plan against violence and abuse.

While the minister said the first video was upsetting, he said, “Also, we cannot in any way condone, shape or form a parent who will decide on his own justice.”

Center multiservice des Samares did not respond to a request for an interview Wednesday.

Parents say fights are common at the school and accuse staff of not intervening.

“I went and picked my daughter up from school and I had to intervene because no one bothered to come in,” Girard said, adding that when the punishments were handed down, they weren't severe enough.

Her daughter missed so many classes to escape her tormentors that she had to repeat the 8th grade.

“Parents have reached this level of stress,” he said, trying to protect their children.