“They can’t promise me that it’s not going to happen again,’’ Lynch said of school officials.
Matthew Wilder, spokesman for the Boston public schools, declined to comment on the incident or why it has been classified as a possible case of sexual harassment. He said officials do not discuss confidential student information.
“Any kind of inappropriate touching would fall under that category,’’ Wilder said. “The school administration is conducting a full investigation that has not concluded yet. Certainly, once that investigation is through, we’ll then make a final conclusion as to who will be disciplined and how.’’
The interim school principal, Leslie Gant, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Lynch offered her account of the fight yesterday as she and her son sat in the living room of their Dorchester apartment, where Mark watched cartoons.
That Tuesday afternoon, she said, she met her son at his bus stop. As he stepped off, he looked as if he were about to burst into tears.
When she asked him what was wrong, Lynch said, he told her another boy had choked him and taken his new gloves. Lynch said she stormed up to the bus driver and asked him what he saw.
“He just smiled and shrugged,’’ she said. Lynch said she called the school repeatedly but got no answer.
The following Monday, Lynch said, she told her older son, who is 11, to take Mark to the principal’s office and explain what happened.
“I just thought they were going to call the parents, tell us both to come in and make the boys shake hands,’’ Lynch said. At best, she said the other boy would apologize and return her son’s gloves.
Instead, Lynch said, officials kept him inside the office and began questioning him.
Lynch said the boy later told her he was so rattled by the questioning he told school officials he started the fight.
“They didn’t believe me,’’ Mark said softly. “I didn’t get my gloves back.’’
Later that day, Lynch received a message from Mark’s grandmother, telling her that school officials were trying to reach her. Lynch said she spoke with Gant, who told her the school had called the state Department of Children and Families to report the incident.
