There’s currently a call to action to put pressure on school board officials of a Florida school district where a Black 7th grader was seen on video getting beaten in a locker room by three white students.
The incident, which took place in Lakeland, happened last week and the disturbing video has since gone viral. Now people are demanding the students be disciplined.
In addition to holding the students accountable, the family of the victim says a teacher who was in the locker room didn’t do enough to protect their son, according to WTSP. They want to see him fired.
“I mean not only was I disturbed, but I was enraged. It is so hard to watch” said Lauren Springfield, the boy’s mother. There are several videos that Lakeland police are using in their investigation of the beating.
“You get the videos and you’re like, ‘Well this is way more!’ This is not an altercation, it is not a fight between two or more people, this was an attack,” Springfield said.
Lakeland police have charged one student with a misdemeanor and he has been suspended for 10 days. The teacher who was in the locker room at the time is also reportedly being investigated.
“We learned that the teacher was actually in the locker room and I don’t understand that. How can you be in the locker room in your office, hear this going on, and you just tell the kids to chill out? You never once get up in the span of four minutes to go and check on the child? I don’t understand that,” Springfield said.
In the video, you can hear the teacher yell at the kids to stop the fight. Springfield finds it hard to believe any adult would let a child get ganged up on.
“Your number one priority is the safety of your students. Originally I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt because I’ve been a teacher, but then to know that he was right there and couldn’t stop it. I mean we could be having such a different conversation right now. Had he hit his head harder, had the right punch been thrown he could’ve had permanent damage. He could’ve been dead,” Springfield said.
Springfield says her 7th grader was left defenseless and vulnerable. The family isn’t letting things rest so something like this won’t happen to any other child.
“I want justice for my son. I want the punishments to actually match the severity of what happened,” Springfield said.
Activists such as Shaun King shared the phone number of the school board and asked his followers to call and demand justice.
We’ll keep you posted on any updates, Roommates.
