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Bullying incident, school's reaction distress parent
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By MISTY MAYNARD Staff Writer
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VANCEBURG -- A distressed mother pulled her son out of Lewis County Middle School following a bullying incident last week that she claims has not yet been resolved.
Sherry Williamson said her son, Steven who is in a special education class at the middle school, was allegedly assaulted in a classroom while his teacher stepped into the hall to act as a hall monitor. Williamson said two boys who had spent the year calling her son names, physically assaulted him by pushing his head into a filing cabinet and hitting him so hard in the stomach he fell to his knees. A young girl in the class then ran into the hall and alerted the teacher.
"He has taken mental abuse," Williamson said of her 13-year-old son. "This is enough."
Williamson said she was not alerted to the situation by note or phone, and didn't know anything of the incident until a parent of the girl called to see how her son was doing. Then, when she asked her son, she said he "broke down."
Williamson said Steven suffers from ADHD, and takes medication which sometimes causes him to become depressed. This side effect is heightened with the bullying he endures.
Williamson has pushed to know what punishment those who were bullying her son must endure, afraid their actions will go unpunished.
"As far as I know, they haven't done anything," she said.
Principal Larry Riley said he handled the problem Thursday in a timely manner and, until Williamson complained had thought the issue was taken care of.
"I can't share information with other parents," Riley said.
Riley said the school follows the discipline code established by the board of education, which defines certain levels for punishments according to the circumstances of the incident as well as the student's prior record. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects a student's educational records, and cannot be released to anyone other than the parents, or approved party as defined by the act.
"We want everybody to be successful," Riley said. "I do everything possible."
Everything possible includes maintaining an open-door policy to allow students or parents to speak to him any time regarding any issue. Riley said it is not policy to contact parents regarding every discipline issue, and if they had felt the bullying would be an ongoing problem, they would have alerted the parents.
"I want to make sure everybody's safe," Riley said.
Williamson said following the students' trip to the principal's office last Thursday, the boy who had assaulted her son then threatened him that tomorrow would be worse. She didn't allow her son to find out if his words were true.
Williamson and Riley both said Steven has been involved in peer mediation with the same students who have allegedly bullied him. In addition, Riley said following an incident such as the assault, increased supervision would be implemented to keep a student safe.
Williamson addressed the guidance counselor about the issue, and was disturbed that she recommended changing Steven's schedule, a move Williamson sees as avoiding the issue. Not only does it take Steven away from the friends he has made in the class, but it simply delays a problem without ever fixing it, she said.
"They're not doing anything to dissolve this," she said.
Riley said he doesn't know all the details of the situation, or the result of Williamson's conversation with the guidance counselor, but he tries to work with parents as best he can. Incidents such as bullying, Riley said, occur maybe once a month, and in that category he also included student disagreements which result in arguments.
However, according to National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, more than one in six students report they are bullied sometimes, while one in 12 report they are bullied on a weekly basis. They define bullying as taking three forms, psychological, physical or verbal.
"We just don't really have problems of bullying," he said. "(We do) anything that we can to help."
Contact Misty Maynard at misty.maynard@lee.net or call 606-564-9091, ext. 274. |
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