Taylor Brock, Virginia mom, 12 year old son choked by older girl on school bus as administrators refuse to ban bully who is issued order of protection to keep away from boy in latest case of school bullying.
Why does it keep happening? A Virginia mother has demanded school authorities take action against an older girl caught on surveillance video choking and bullying her 12 year old son during a recent attack on a school bus.
Taylor Brock, whose son is a seventh-grader at Walt Whitman Middle School in Alexandria, posted footage from the Jan. 23 incident on her blog Monday in which she calls out the older child’s behavior.
A one-minute clip shows the girl hitting her son, grabbing him by the mouth and neck, threatening him, and then apparently choking him while pushing him into the seat.
The driver is only heard warning students not to switch seats.
The incident according to the mom led to her son being left with red marks and bruises and now fearing riding the school bus.
‘My son came home crying, and I saw the marks on his neck,’ Brock told WUSA 9. ‘It breaks my heart that there are all these kids on the bus and not one decided to stand up.’
The mom wrote that the attacker was the same girl who had stolen a toy from her son months ago.
‘I immediately went to the school to show them the video of the assault and pictures of my son’s neck. Upon seeing this I was sure that the school would take proper action and keep not only my son safe but the other children on the bus and school safe too by expelling her,’ Brock wrote.
‘Surely, a child seen committing a heinous crime would get expelled from school,’ the mom added.
Brock told WJLA that she also filed a complaint with police.
‘The school said they couldn’t tell me what action would be taken against the girl but that they would take care of it,’ she told the outlet, adding that she obtained a protection order from a Fairfax County judge who ordered the girl to stay at least 50 feet away from her son for two years.
‘I found out from my son that she had come back to school after being merely suspended for a criminal act such as strangulation. How is that fair?’ Brock wrote.
The mom said the school assured her that her son and his assailant would not have the same classes and that the principal told the two children to walk apart in the hallways, WUSA reported.
But Brock said her son told her the girl sat behind him at lunch and crossed paths with him in the hallways.
‘Not only did the girl not take this protection order seriously, but the school didn’t either,’ Brock wrote.
She said that when she asked school officials why they merely suspended the girl, ‘they replied, ‘We have protocols we have to follow and execute punishment according to the School’s Code of Conduct.’’
‘From what I have been told, she is known for bullying but mostly bullies my son. He is an easy target as he is one of the shortest and skinniest children in his grade which was true for me growing up as well,’ Broke wrote in her blog.
‘This child committed a felony under adult standards and suspension was the ‘correct form of discipline?’’ she added.
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— Scallywagandvagabond (@ScallywagNYC) February 17, 2023
According to guidance by the Virginia Department of Education, schools are not legally responsible for enforcing a court order, but safety should still be a priority and a school can determine steps if an order is violated.
A Fairfax County Public Schools rep told WUSA in a statement: ‘The school administration handled the situation in line with the student discipline manual (FCPS Student Rights and Responsibilities). We are unable to share further information due to federal privacy laws.’
Brock told WUSA she plans on moving her son to another school and he has sought therapy.
‘Do you know how many parents have come to me telling me their child were bullied, harassed, sexually assaulted, abused, and harmed at school and how they repeatedly go to the school asking them to do something and the school does nothing?’ the mom wrote.
‘These parents ask me what they need to do to get the schools to take action- and I have to say, ‘I don’t know. The school has video of a crime and a protection order and they still only believed that suspension was enough to keep my child safe,’ she added.
The incident comes after after a number of national bullying episodes being caught on video, including a 15 year old boy and another boy beating a 9 year old Florida girl on a school bus along with video of a 14-year-old New Jersey girl, Adriana Kuch, being mercilessly set upon by four girls in a school hallway, only for the girl to take her own life two days later after video of the assault began circulating social media.
