Texas police are investigating claims of repeated bullying against a black high school student whose mother says he was physically assaulted, called racial insults, and forced to drink urine by classmates.
The boy’s mom, Summer Smith, who goes by Summer Alicia on Facebook, detailed in a message earlier this week, her son, SeMarion, faced numerous times of being bullied by peers.
Smith said officials at her son’s school, Haggard Middle School in Plano, a Dallas suburb, took no action to address the bullying after it was reported.
“Imagine you are a happy kid who loves to make people laugh and have fun … Imagine your classmates and members of the soccer team turning on you and targeting you,” she wrote . “Imagine a group of those same members of the soccer team attacking you in the locker room with a belt … Imagine being spanked in the private area and when you tell an adult you are told ‘boys will be boys’ . “
The mother also wrote that her son had his inhaler taken off by his coach, that he was told to kill himself, that he was attacked by classmates with BB guns and forced to drink a cup of urine.
Smith then included screenshots in the post of verbal threats and racial insults seemingly directed against SeMarion, as well as a video showing that someone who appeared to be her son was forced by another boy to drink a cup of yellow liquid.
Plano police spokesman David Tilley said The Dallas Morning News that a student’s mother called the high school resource officer this week, and the officer is now working with a juvenile crime detective to investigate the allegations of bullying.
Local NBC affiliated station KXAS-TV reported that a small group of family, friends of SeMarion, and parents of other students held a rally outside of high school on Thursday and demanded that the local school district take action.
“More needs to be done to make these children feel represented, so that these children feel protected and these parents feel protected, and that’s not happening,” said Taler Jefferson, a family friend, according to the local news outlet.
The Plano Independent School District said in a public statement in response to the bullying allegations that it was “working with campus and local law enforcement to actively investigate the matter.”
“Our district will not tolerate harassment or intimidation and is taking prompt and corrective action to address concerns,” the statement added.
The district further said, “While we cannot discuss intervention or disciplinary action with regard to a specific student or students, our response to any behavioral issue is always consistent with district policy and the Plano ISD Student Code of Conduct.”
The family’s attorney, Kim Cole, started a GoFundMe page to cover the therapy and private education costs for SeMarion, according to the description on the page. The fundraiser had already received more than $ 30,000 on Saturday, the day after the page launched.
A change.org petition This week, a call was also made to the school district to punish the students allegedly involved in the bullying, and more than 103,000 signatures have been received.