Source: YouTube
As parents, it’s natural for us to want the best for our children. And a large part of that is hoping they get the proper education. It was with this dream in mind that this mother sent her daughter, known in the media as KP, to a private, mostly White school in Waco, Texas called Live Oak Classical School.
According to The Daily Beast, KP’s mother was looking for a “better education” and “wholesome learning environment.”
But that’s not what she found. Instead, her daughter was being bullied at school. And not only was she being picked on, those who did so often went unpunished.
In the lawsuit she’s now filing against the school, she wrote that back in November a boy repeatedly pushed and shoved her daughter.
She wrote, “This is not the first time this has happened. During the Tempest play rehearsal he was pushing and kicking her in the line that they were in.”
The school’s principal, Allison Buras, responded saying, that she “…would never want children hurting one another” and that she spoke to the boys about the incident.
She later excused the action.
“It sounds like he may have pushed on the back of her leg to make her leg buckle, which is something the kids sometimes do,” Buras wrote. “Rarely is that done out of meanness but more out of a desire for sport.”
And while Live Oak’s attorney alleges that the allegations made in the mother’s petition were false, that was not even the worst of it.
During an April field trip to Germer Ranch in Blanco County, Texas, KP and several other children found a swing with a long rope attached to it. According to the lawsuit, KP was standing next to the swing when three white boys, including one who had allegedly bullied her in the past, pulled the rope back and wrapped it around her neck. The boys then violently jerked to the ground, leaving abrasions on her neck.
A school board member told the Dallas Morning News that “Live Oak takes the safety of its students seriously and is saddened that one of its family suffered an unfortunate accident and injury.”
The school’s attorneys conducted interviews with the students, chaperones and teachers afterward and determined that the injuries were the result of an accident.
Meanwhile, the family’s attorney, Levi McCathern, who also represents the Dallas Cowboys, referred to the incident as an attack and called it “racially motivated.”
Their attorney said, “Based on the injuries KP sustained, it’s nearly impossible to argue that this was somehow an accident that could of happened to any child that day, regardless of race. The severity and the specificity of the injury certainly point to this incident being racial.”
When KP told adult chaperones what happened, they gave her Vaseline and Motrin for the pain. When the children returned from the trip, no one informed KP’s mother about the incident.
McCathern said, ““Even if this incident was unintentional,” McCathern wrote, “the school’s lack of supervision to let this happen, dismissive and tone deaf response after it happened, and refusal to investigate until legally prompted to, showed an utter disregard for one of the only African American children in the school.”
When KP’s mother saw the severity of the injury, she took her to the emergency room. Doctors at the hospital, noting the injury, notified police. A crime scene unit took pictures for an investigation.
Afterward, KP was immediately removed from the school. She is now receiving treatment and counseling for the injuries she sustained.
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