School officials and local police are investigating after a Black woman claimed that her 13-year-old son was subjected to severe bullying and abuse at the hands of his peers at a Texas middle school, culminating last month with the boy being forced to drink urine at a sleepover party.
Summer Smith wrote in a lengthy Facebook post on Wednesday that her son, SeMarion Humphrey, had endured ongoing abuse by his peers at Haggard Middle School in Plano, a suburb of Dallas.
“Imagine being a happy kid who loves making people smile and having a good time … Imagine your classmates and football team members turning on you and targeting you,” she wrote. “Imagine a group of those same football team members attacking you in the locker-room with a belt… Imagine being hit in the private area and when you tell an adult you are told ‘boys will be boys.'”
The Plano Police Department announced Thursday, March 4, that a resource officer at the school began investigating the situation on March 3 after receiving a phone call from the boy’s family.
The school resource officer and juvenile detective assigned to the case will, “conduct a full and thorough investigation in an effort to identify any and criminal offenses that might have occurred during and prior to this incident.”
On Facebook, Smith said that video of SeMarion drinking urine from a cup was shared among students at the middle school.
“Imagine being forced to drink the urine of not only a boy who thought was your friend, but his friends…Imagine the video of you drinking the urine being sent to multiple people in your school…Imagine the school telling you they can’t do a thing about it because ‘the incidents didn’t all take place on campus,'” the Facebook post reads. “My son doesn’t have to imagine these things, they are all his reality.”
She shared a video of SeMarion sitting on the floor being forced to drink yellow liquid from a cup by a white student as people in the background laugh.
Kim Cole, an attorney for the family, said SeMarion has been bullied for a a year and that the incident, which allegedly happened at a February sleepover, can be described as a “racially motivated hate crime.
“In my opinion, not only did they torture this kid, but they filmed it and were proud of it and shared it on multiple social media sites making fun of him,” she said, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The Next Generation Action Network said in a Friday release that one student befriended SeMarion as ruse to invite him to the sleepover from Feb. 12 to Feb. 14, where students allegedly filmed themselves punching, slapping and shooting the boy with BBs.
“To date, Plano ISD has done nothing. Neither has Plano Police,” the group added in their release. “The lack of response from local officials is not surprising just days from where another black teen was just harassed and falsely arrested by Plano Police.”
The group shared a screenshot of an Instagram Live where one student purportedly called SeMarion a “white wash blackie” in the chat.
“We are calling for a federal investigation into this racially motivated hate crime,” the group said.
The Plano Independent School District said it learned of the incident on Tuesday “and is working with the campus and local law enforcement to actively investigate the matter.”
“Our district does not tolerate or condone bullying or harassing behavior, and is taking prompt and remedial action to address concerns,” the district said in a statement.
The police department said it is investigating to identify criminal offenses, but school officials could not disclose potential disciplinary actions because the matter concerns students.
A GoFundMe page for to help the family raise money for therapy and private schooling for SeMarion has raised more than $43,000 as of this writing.
