The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

A 13-YEAR-OLD boy fled for his life as a group of students chased him across the grounds of C H Reeves Junior High School after attacking him, surrounding him and allegedly threatening to have his “head”, according to his mother and a viral video of the incident.

Genal Bodie said her son sought help from the school after the attack during summer classes on Thursday, but she was not contacted and no arrangements were made to ensure he reached home safely. She said the group was waiting outside the school gate when he later attempted to leave.

Ms Bodie, who is considering transferring her son for his safety, reported the matter to police and went to the school with officers on Friday to demand answers about its handling of the incident.

“What C.H.Reeves teachers thinking? Are they not parents?” she said.

The video, which had attracted nearly 1,000 shares and more than 700 comments up to press time, shows at least eight boys surrounding the teenager as he repeatedly refuses to fight.

At the beginning of the recording, one student tells another boy to “strike” him before a boy wearing a black head wrap pushes the 13-year-old.

“I ain't fighting,” the teenager says, explaining that the other boy is his friend.

As he continues saying that he does not want to fight, students jeer and encourage the other boy to attack him. One shouts, “lay one on him;” another says, “He's a joker,” and another urges the aggressor to “(expletive) him up”.

The aggressor grabs the teenager by his shirt while another boy slaps him on the head. The 13-year-old again refuses to fight, but holds the boy’s shirt after being slapped as the surrounding students urge the attacker to strike him again.

The confrontation escalates when one boy says, “see the knife right here.” Another jumps around the teenager before slapping him, while another pushes him.

The boy eventually runs as a crowd of students chases him across the school grounds.

Ms Bodie said her son later told her: “I feel like these boys them gonna try kill me.”

She said he also told her the group threatened on Thursday that they would have his “head”.

Ms Bodie said her son had been attending summer classes in preparation for eighth grade when the incident occurred. She said watching the footage caused him to tremble as the full weight of the attack appeared to hit him.

“I started to play the video, and then he started to just like tremble up. He started to actually tremble up. Like everything just started hitting him,” she said.

“I was like, so you were going through all this situation and you ain't even letting me know. I said, furthermore, how could the school allow you to go out the gate with these same young men who just retaliated to you.”

Ms Bodie said she sensed something was wrong when her son returned home from summer school earlier than usual. Because she suffers from seizures, however, he was reluctant to disclose the full extent of what had happened.

He initially told her only that some boys had tried to fight him at school, that the incident was not serious and that the school had addressed it.

Ms Bodie became more concerned after noticing a lump on his head and swelling around his cheek. She questioned why the school had not contacted her.

Her son told her: “Mummy, I gon be okay, I just want lay down and go sleep.”

Ms Bodie did not learn the full extent of the attack until her neighbour’s daughter received the video while they were running errands and asked whether the boy in the footage was her son.

“I felt weak in the knees,” she said. “All I do was just ask God for strength to keep my body standing. He just give me strength to deal with this the best way I could.”

She described watching the attack as heartbreaking.

“Because it ain't my face, but that's my child's face - he's me, I'm him,” she said. “I was feeling his pain.”

“Whatever he felt, I felt it. I was feeling his pain, with the hits everything.”

Ms Bodie said she later showed her son the video and pointed out that some of those involved were boys he had considered friends. She said he then found the courage to tell her everything that had happened.

She said the dispute began during a group telephone call on Wednesday night after one boy, who does not appear in the video, mocked her son about his grandmother’s death.

The teenager left the call to avoid becoming upset, but later rejoined. Ms Bodie said the boy seen grabbing his shirt in the video also began mocking his grandmother and called her “deep and wide”.

She said her son responded by saying “that's your mother” before ending the call. Ms Bodie later instructed him not to rejoin it.

She said there had been no indication that the boys would target him at school the following day.

After escaping the attack, the teenager ran to the school office for help because he feared the group would assault him while he walked home, Ms Bodie said.

She said he told an administrator that he had been attacked and did not want to fight, although he did not explain the full extent of what had occurred.

According to Ms Bodie, the administrator contacted the parents of the other boys, informed them about the fight and said the students would be suspended until September. The parents were also told they could collect their children if possible.

Ms Bodie said no one contacted her or took steps to ensure her son reached home safely.

She said her son suffered further trauma when he tried to walk home and discovered the group waiting outside the school gate.

Her cousin, a security officer at the school, saw the situation escalating and placed the teenager in her vehicle for his protection while other security officers instructed the group to leave, she said.

Ms Bodie acknowledged that her son had previously been involved in two school fights and said he was not perfect. She said he had sometimes yielded to peer pressure in an attempt to fit in, but learned conflict-resolution skills after completing a two-week behavioural programme.

She said the boys involved should be held accountable through the law and must understand that their actions could lead to someone’s funeral.

The Tribune contacted police to determine whether any of the boys had been taken into custody or whether an investigation was underway, but the police press liaison did not provide an update.

The video triggered widespread outrage, with many social media users praising the teenager for escaping what they described as a dangerous situation and questioning the parenting of the other students.

Families of All Murder Victims president Khandi Gibson said a meeting should already have been held with all parents involved to seek a resolution.

Ms Gibson said the teenager had endured humiliation, fear and embarrassment and urged the community to take a stand against bullying.

She told the 13-year-old that he was a hero for running from the dangerous situation. Ms Gibson is giving him a new telephone for the school year and is working with others to provide school supplies, saying the support has been overwhelming.