The parents of two 15-year-old girls at Evan Hardy Collegiate in Saskatoon say they went to police and the school multiple times between June and August 2024 with concerns about escalating online threats from the student now accused of setting one of the girls on fire in a school hallway.
“We went through all the resources and asked for help, over and over again,” said one parent in an interview. “Three police reports. I had 17 email exchanges with the principal.”
They say they went to the police and the school because the text messages and online threats from the then-14-year-old classmate were escalating into violent territory. CBC reviewed the dated and time-stamped texts.
“We thought as parents that we did what we were supposed to do, that we did the extent of what we could do,” said one parent.
“Leave this in the hands of the law, and this person and her attachment issues would go away.”
On Sept. 5, 2024, one of the 15-year-olds sustained burns to 40 per cent of her body when another student poured a flammable liquid on her head and torso and lit her on fire in a hallway outside a classroom just before lunch.
The accused, now 15, is charged with aggravated assault, attempted murder and arson. The parents of the burned girl say the accused is the classmate who sent the threatening texts.
CBC is not naming the parents or the teen because she is a youth victim of crime. The accused cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The parents of the burned teen say they met with police and the principal of Evan Hardy the last week of August 2024.
“We were very concerned about this person harassing our daughter and her friends and we wanted to make sure that they are kept separated. She assured us that they would have a plan in place.”
Today, the mother is haunted by a different promise, one made in a text to her daughter.
“Answer me or I will make school a living hell.”
The parents of two 15-year-old girls at Evan Hardy Collegiate in Saskatoon say they went to police and the school multiple times between June and August 2024 with concerns about escalating online threats from the student now accused of setting one of the girls on fire in a school hallway.
‘Politely asked her to step back’
CBC met the two teens and three of the parents at the home of the burned teen in the last week of February 2025. The five were interviewed individually, each presenting their perspective on what happened in the hallway at Evan Hardy that day and over the summer prior.
They corroborated their stories with the saved texts, and detailed timelines of their meetings with police and the school.
The parents became involved at the start of the summer break in 2024, the mother of the injured girl said.
“June 30 was the first time she brought this to my attention. She showed me her phone and said that she’s been getting these text messages from someone from Evan Hardy that she didn’t know very well,” she said.
“She kind of backed away and told them, ‘I hardly know you so we don’t have to talk every day.’ And politely asked her to step back. And she wouldn’t step back, so our daughter got her friend involved.”
Last year, a 15-year-old was severely burned at Evan Hardy Collegiate in Saskatoon in an alleged attack by another student. Now, she is telling the story in her words. Warning: This story contains distressing details.
The teen’s friend says she messaged the girl.
“I tried my best to get them to stop,” the 15-year-old said.
“I redirected them when [the texts] were starting to get more violent. I told them, like, ‘calm down and talk to me instead.'”
Instead, both teens began getting threatening texts.
The two moms and two teens got together on a phone call to try to figure out what to do.
“Within just a few minutes being brought into the conversation, a text was received [by one teen] that said you should slit your wrists and kill yourself. So, we blocked everything — that’s done. This is not play time,” the parent said.
Both sets of parents say they went to police the next day, July 1, and filed separate complaints.
Police, Saskatoon Public Schools respond
In an email to CBC on March 4, 2025, Saskatoon police said they can’t comment on the matter because it is before the courts.
However, a spokesperson said police collaborate with school divisions through their violent threat assessment process.
“As a partner in this approach, the SPS provides contextual information to assist school divisions and other stakeholders in assessing and managing potential threats,” communications manager Kelsie Fraser wrote.
“This collaborative effort helps implement plans to enhance school safety.”
A spokesperson for Saskatoon Public Schools said in an email that the division would not be providing an interview. CBC had contacted the division requesting an interview to discuss the safety plan, the after-incident audit and any changes to school division policy after the attack.
“We can’t say anything specific about this incident while it remains before the courts. We also don’t speak to particulars of student incidents at any time to protect the privacy of minors,” wrote communications manager Colleen Cameron.
“This would include the details of any student’s safety plan.”
Cameron detailed some changes the division made after the attack. They include introducing an anonymous, third-party safety reporting tool called P-S-S-T World and “enhancing the documentation process for students who are exhibiting concerning behaviours or using concerning language.”
School administrators such as superintendents, principals and vice-principals are also to receive additional training.
The division also introduced the “Student Connection Program,” designed to support students who can’t participate in a traditional school setting due to safety concerns.
Cameron also confirmed the external audit of the incident was happening and would include interviews and “a review of documentation.”
She did not say when the review would be finished, or whether the findings would be made public or shared with the families.
The parents of the injured teen contacted school division director of education Shane Skjerven on March 7 for an update on the independent report. Cameron confirmed to CBC in an email that Skjerven had been in contact with the family.
“A preliminary report has been provided to our division’s legal counsel. This is a necessary part of the process to ensure full cooperation with the ongoing investigation,” she wrote.
“Our counsel has indicated we will be able to meet in the not-too-distant future for a briefing on the report’s contents. Of course, we will be in touch with those most immediately impacted at that time. And, beyond that, we will share what we can with appropriate parties.”
A summer of discontent
The parents say they repeatedly contacted police and the school in July and August.
They were told after their initial reports on July 1 that a file had been opened, but that it would be dealt with by the police school resource officer in the fall, “since there was no school in session, and in August the school resource officer was re-assigned to some other gig for the summer,” the mother of the injured teen said.
The parents say the school’s principal reached out on July 5 and said she had contacted the guardians of the girl sending the texts and shared what was happening.
The threatening messages slowed for a few weeks, but then resumed in August, the parents said.
“She would say things about hurting herself and hurting other people, so we went again to the police station, filed the second report and quoted the first report number so that they would be attached, or together,” the mom of the injured teen said.
This led to the meeting with police and the principal just before school began.
“She, the principal, said the right words to let us know, or feel like, our daughter would be safe at school.”
‘Voices told her to do things’
The parents say they did not learn the details of the safety plan until a meeting with the principal after the 15-year-old was burned.
The then-14-year-old was to go directly to the administration office for a one-on-meeting to assess whether she was “regulated and ready for school, and to do a backpack check,” the mother of the injured teen’s friend said.
“I was told that this happened on the Wednesday, the first day of school, and that they deemed the accused not ready, not balanced, not able to stay and they dismissed them and sent them home,” she said.
“On the Thursday the accused came in and was processed the same way: spoke to the vice-principal and we were told there was a bag check. At some point during the morning there was another assessment deemed — I’m not sure what triggered it — but they had decided the accused was not balanced and ready for school.”
The teen was escorted by two teachers to an exit to wait for a pick-up, according to the mother of the injured girl’s best friend, based on a conversation she said she had with the principal. The exit was in the hallway near where the injured teen was in her history class.
The school division would not provide any comment on the events of that day for this story.
The parents of the injured teen did not learn until later, when the accused had been arrested and charged and appeared in court, that she had been in and out of psychiatric care that summer.
The information came out in a September appearance in youth court. Her lawyer had applied for an assessment of whether the then-14-year-old was not criminally responsible. Judge Sanjeev Anand granted the request to assess whether, at the time of the alleged offence, the teen was suffering from a mental disorder.
Under questioning by Anand, court heard that the teen had been under the care of a nurse practitioner and had been diagnosed with a “psychotic disorder.” She had also been admitted to hospital that summer for emergency psychiatric care.
The judge also heard how the teen had told Saskatoon police “voices told her to do things” in the moments after her 15-year-old classmate was lit on fire.
CBC also learned that the attack was not the first time the accused and fire were an issue at the school.
Teachers at the school confirmed the accused had tried to light ceiling tiles in a library side room on fire on March 25, 2024. She was suspended for three days and ordered to submit to bag checks. CBC is not naming the teachers because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The City of Saskatoon confirmed that the fire department responded to a call at 605 Acadia Dr. on March 25, 2024. That is the address for Evan Hardy Collegiate. They were called to the school to provide ventilation.
The road ahead
The parents of the injured teen do not know what lies ahead.
Her dad says they were interviewed by the external investigator contracted by the Saskatoon Public School Division for an audit of what happened. They spent an hour with the investigator telling their story, but the dad says he doesn’t know what will become of the report or its findings.
Both parents have attended the accused’s court appearances. The legal process is slow, confusing and uncertain. The accused has pleaded not guilty to the charges and a four-day preliminary hearing is scheduled at provincial court in July.
In the end, the parents want an open accounting from the police and the school about what happened.
“There’s information that they won’t share with us until this goes to trial, or until this comes to an end,” the injured teen’s dad said.
“Then we can see what can be done better next time so this doesn’t happen again and another family doesn’t have to go through what we’re going through, and what our daughter has to go through for the rest of her life.”
Today, they are focused on their daughter’s healing journey.
“She’s a strong young woman. She has bad hours, and they are getting fewer, but she powers through those releases of frustration and pain,” said her dad.
“A lot of things have changed, but a lot of things have stayed the same,” said the girl’s mom.
“Her personality, her resilience, her strength and courage. She’s so brave to talk about what happened, and she’s so brave to be out in the world. We will go to a grocery store or the mall and it’s OK. There are some people who stare because her skin looks very different than mine or your healthy skin.
“But I think the staring is mostly out of concern, and the people have the questions: I wonder if that’s the girl from Evan Hardy?”