A Toronto mom, who we are calling N.M., says her seven-year-old son was sexually assaulted during recess at a public school in Scarborough on Thursday.

“During lunch my son was forced to perform a sexual act on an eight- or nine-year-old little boy,” N.M. said. “He [my son] didn’t tell, it was another boy who witnessed it and he told his mother.”

N.M. said it was the witness’s mother who went to the office and told the principal. The vice-principal then told N.M.’s husband about the incident later that day when he went to pick up their son from school.

“When I asked about guaranteeing my son’s safety, if this boy is going to school I was told they can keep [my son] and put him in the office and he can go to school in the office,” she said. “I don’t see how the victim is in the office and this little boy is outside playing amongst all the other kids when my son is the one that didn’t do anything wrong”

She says it was then that she knew her son would not be going back to that school at all.

“I decided he’s not going back,” she said. “There’s no way that trauma is going to repeat itself for the rest of the school year.”

Toronto police are investigating the incident and the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto is also involved in the matter.

CityNews is calling the mother N.M. to protect the identity of her child. We have also removed the accompanying video, as it showed the woman’s face. We have also removed the name of the boy’s old and new schools.

N.M. said she requested to have her son removed from the public school and placed at a new school. She said she was facing delays from the school board initially because even though the new school is only a short distance away, it is out of her district.

“So [with] this being the extreme you would figure he’d be able to get in to the school that’s four blocks from my house versus 15 blocks, but because the way the district is I was only given the selection within [Toronto District School Board superintendent] Peter Chang’s district,” N.M. said.

N.M. said this was because their home is an odd number but that if it was an even number there would be no problem and he’d be “at that school tomorrow.”

The good news is that after the story aired on CityNews, Chang personally reached out to N.M. to let her know that her son could attend the school of her choice.

The TDSB told CityNews they’ve “been working closely with the family over recent days and have arranged for the student to attend the school the family had requested.”

N.M. said she’s thankful this part of it is over but that work still needs to be done. She says what she really wants to see is the school board review it’s policies and procedures for extreme situations like this one so parents are not left waiting.