A Wakefield, Massachusetts, mom says her sixth-grade daughter is afraid to go to school, telling the WBZ I-Team the preteen has been threatened and bullied for months. The mom says the school has taken some action against the students involved, but the bullying hasn't stopped.
The 12-year-old is a typical preteen, excited about playing softball and was looking forward to starting sixth grade. But her mom, Diana, says instead of worrying about homework or making friends, she is worried about being bullied and threatened at school.
"She's being called all sorts of names like slut and whore," Diana said. "I have a student that told her that she should kill herself. If not, that he's going to kill her, then he's going to harm me and rape me."
Not all of the threats are verbal. Screenshots of text messages sent to the 12-year-old's phone came from an unknown account and said things like "no one likes you" and "I hope you drown yourself."
Diana says all of this started last year when her daughter was in the fifth grade at the Galvin Middle School in Wakefield and continued into this school year. Diana says she is distraught. "My daughter is beautiful, she's smart, she's funny. And, you know, my daughter shouldn't have to feel the way she does, not wanting to go to school, not wanting to take the bus and feeling inadequate to be at school," Diana said. "My daughter should feel safe."
In an email, the school principal told Diana they conducted an investigation and they did "find other problematic messages" on a male classmate's phone and that the school "responded according to our disciplinary rubric."
And in a separate message about the sixth grader, the vice principal told Diana, "a few kids were really mean to her and we're dealing with them all and they're in trouble."
Diana says her daughter is very upset about the bullying and said she does not think the school is doing enough to protect her. "They don't give these students consequences, you know, and I agree with her," Diana said.
The school administration did move the student who was allegedly sending the bullying messages out of her daughter's classes. But Diana says the two still share a lunch period. "I think they have not done enough. The kid was in the cafeteria, and he mocked my daughter and threw food at her," she said.
Just recently, Diana said school officials suggested her complaints about her daughter being bullied are motivated by race. "Everything has been documented, everything is in writing. I just want the bullying to stop," Diana said. "I don't care who they are, where they come from, the bullying it needs to stop. She shouldn't feel uncomfortable to go to school, she's only 12."
Wakefield schools superintendent did not respond to the I-Team's repeated requests for an on-camera interview. Diana says she has filed a complaint with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. It tells the I-Team that complaint is under review.
