NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) – Julie Brisbon has seen the bruise on her daughter’s forehead. Now she wants to see how it happened.
Her daughter was a third grader at Katherine G. Johnson Elementary in Lee Hall. Brisbon said a girl in fifth grade repeatedly harassed her.
“She’s telling authorities and still nothing’s being done,” Brisbon said in a Wednesday afternoon interview. “(The bully) was putting her hands on her. She’s not supposed to be putting her hands on her, period. And pushing her, ‘Oh you think you’re cute,’ and she just keeps antagonizing her. My daughter was telling her to stop.”
But then it got a lot uglier.
The two girls were on the same bus after school Feb. 8. That’s when Brisbon’s daughter told her the bully hit her in the head with a can of beans.
“When I picked her up and she got in the car, she was crying, and she was saying, ‘Mom, the girl keeps messing with me and she hit me in the head with a can,'” Brisbon said.
Her daughter’s bruising and swelling on her forehead have gone down, but Brisbon’s anger has not. She wanted to see the surveillance video from the bus, so she met with the principal.
“I get there and she tells me that I can’t view the video of my child being injured,” Brisbon said. “That’s the worst thing to know that your child was hurt.”
Brisbon wanted to press charges against the parents of her daughter’s tormentor, but a police officer told her it wouldn’t play out that way.
“The charges would not go towards the parents,” Brisbon said, “They would go toward the child, and I don’t know, I have a heart too. I don’t want to have a fifth-grader to have a charge.”
Meanwhile, Wednesday was Brisbon’s daughter’s first day in her new school – Richneck Elementary, where police say a first grader shot and wounded his teacher back in January.
Newport News Public Schools spokesperson Michelle Price said the division can’t get into details on specific students because of privacy laws, but confirmed in a statement that the incident was investigated:
“All reports of bullying and aggressive behavior are taken seriously and addressed immediately. The administrators at Katherine Johnson Elementary School have been working with this parent for nearly a month to ensure that her daughter has a safe and positive school experience every day.
“While Newport News Public Schools cannot share specific details regarding this parent’s concerns due to student privacy laws, we can confirm that school administrators have addressed each of the parent’s concerns and reports of inappropriate behavior. During their investigation, when it was determined that students acted inappropriately, those students received sanctions in accordance with the school division’s Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.”
