"If he's bold enough to go that far as a hate crime, he needs to be punished who knows what he could do next,” the mother of a 6th grader at Shiatook middle school said.
Unfortunately, bullying is in every school, we know the on-line cyber bullying can be even worse.
But when Newman Middle School Principal, Steve Cantrell heard about two white students possibly using the “n-word” to bully a younger black student, he was shock and disappointed to say the least. He took immediate action; he said the school does not tolerate that kind of behavior at all.
But the bully victim’s family says they’ve tried to tell him about the racial bullying before.
“Just eating my breakfast, minding my own business, when some kid started throwing milk at me,” 6th grader, Frances Martin said.
Fighting back feelings of anger, and tears; 6th grader Frances Martin says it wasn’t the first time he’s been bullied at his school. “One hit the back of my head and I went over and said, ‘hey can you stop that?’” he said. “I stand up for myself.”
He got face to face with his two older bullies in the lunchroom and shoved one of them. What happened next; hurt Frances so deeply, he doesn’t want to go to school.
“He unlaced his boots and he put it in a hook shape and said I’m going to hang you like they did in the olden days,” Frances said he’s never heard that type of talk. His mom thought she’d never have to explain why someone, especially a younger kid, why they were shouting a racial slur that isn’t accepted at all.
Mom, Jhamika says the school didn’t do enough to stop it, when she tried to report bullying before. She says it’s happened with teachers and even some community members’ make her feel like her family isn’t welcome in Shiatook.
“Kind of a slap in the face,” mom Jhamika said. “This probably wouldn’t have happened if he had taken it serious.”
Principal Steve Cantrell says the school takes bullying very seriously, spending $20 thousand in the last year to combat bullying in the middle school through programs like “The Rachel Project” He admits Jhamika has come to him with some complaints about bullying but says they were investigated, and it was like what happened to Frances on Thursday.
It should never happen to any student Cantrell said. “We won’t tolerate any prejudice at all,” he said. “Bullying is the number one problem in every middle school in America.”
When principal Cantrell talked to Frances and student witnesses in the cafeteria who saw what happened to Frances, he didn’t want to believe that kind of bullying still exists. “I guess I was shocked, disappointed, probably disappointed in that a student would stoop to that level, but we’ve dealt with the situation and it’s been handled,” he said.
Principal Cantrell says Frances is a good student and he’s sorry this happened to him, no student should have to go through this and it’s the first time he’s had to deal with a racial issue like this.
Cantrell has been principal at Newman for six years and was in Owasso for 12 before that; he hasn’t ever seen or heard that kind of talk in the hallways until now he said.
“It’s new territory for us, never had a situation like that,” Cantrell said. “I’m very disappointed that anything like this happened at my school we definitely dealt with the situation.”
Cantrell says because of confidentiality reasons, he cannot say how he punished the two older white male students.
He did say, they won’t be back at school for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, the Martin family maybe moving on, Frances wants to move this summer and his mother doesn’t blame him. She hopes the boys are punished not only by the school, but may press charges with the help of police, for a hate crime.
The school has raised and spent $20,000 dollars on anti-bullying programs in the past two years; because they know it’s a problem, not just there, but in many schools.
