The Dellwood Middle School student suspended for brutally beating another student is 15 years old, the victim's mother has revealed.

And she told The Royal Gazette she wanted to know why a 15-year-old was attending middle school which is for 11 to 14 year olds, and why school officials kept her son at school for two and a half hours after the incident.

Sources said the 12-year-old victim required treatment at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after the older student kicked him several times in his face during a fight in one of the school's hallways last week Monday.

The fight was broken up by some students and the victim reported to the deputy principal's office on advice from a friend.

Dellwood principal Carol Bassett declined to comment in detail about the incident which is being investigated by Police' Community and Juvenile Services.

But she denied the incident occurred in the school. And she said the victim's mother was notified as soon as possible.

However, the boy's mother disputed this.

While seeking anonymity, the mother told The Royal Gazette she felt compelled to break her silence because she wanted to prevent such an incident from happening again.

She questioned why the 15-year-old, who has been suspended for five days, was in a middle school.

And she said she did not understand why she was not informed about the attack, which occurred just after 3 p.m., until 5.30 p.m.

She also stressed the incident occurred in the school while the students were en route to a Spanish class, not outside as claimed by Mrs. Bassett.

"At 5.30 p.m. I got a call, telling me my son was sitting there, still bleeding and that he needed to go to the hospital,'' she recalled. "Why was he left sitting in the office?'' She said the school had her work number where she could have been reached earlier.

"In fact, my son asked the secretary could he call me because he knew I would be angry that he was not here,'' the mother said. "And the secretary refused and told him he was not allowed to use the phone without the principal's permission. The principal had gone into a meeting pertaining to something else at that time.

"It was during this time that the teachers were in a meeting, that he was sitting out in the office by himself, obviously needing medical attention.'' She said a teacher with whom she was friendly brought her son home that evening and she took him to the hospital where Police were notified about the incident.

Describing her son's state, she said: "Both his eyes were black, his nose was really swollen and bleeding. His lip was really big. The inside of his mouth was damaged. He had to be placed on antibiotics to prevent infection. He had a lot of bumps on the back of his head because the child was kicking him in the face and the back of his head was banging against the wall.'' As a result of the injuries, she said her son was unable to attend school for the rest of the week.

And while the school had suspended the 15-year-old student for five days, the distraught mother said: "This child needs to be taken out of school altogether because he belongs with children his own age. If he's slow, get him help, a tutor or something. He is a problem child.'' The mother said despite speaking with Mrs. Bassett she was not satisfied with the way the matter was handled and she was therefore trying to reach Education Minister Jerome Dill.

She said Mrs. Bassett explained that she had not contacted her at work because she wanted to calm the situation down, have the other children to go home, and to get both sides of the story.

When contacted, Mr. Dill said the mother had "done the responsible thing by following this up with the principal''.

"And I believe that that is where this incident belongs,'' he added. "I would like to give the principal the opportunity to see she whether she can satisfy the parents before I get involved.

"I don't think it is appropriate for the Minister of Education to get involved in this issue because at the end of the day, in my view, there is far too much publicising of fights between school boys in schools.

"In my view there are a number of fights between schoolboys, both in the public schools and the private schools. It really is concerning to me when we constantly hear the emphasis of fights in the public school system and not in the private school system. It is not because they don't happen.'' However, Mr. Dill stressed that he was "concerned when there is a fight anywhere'' and was not "trivialising the issue at all''.