More parents are complaining about bullying at a Seminole County middle school where an eighth grader was found dead last week from an apparent suicide.
Melissa Gusaeff said her son Jordan, a sixth grader at Greenwood Lakes Middle School, was best friends with Lamar Hawkins, the eighth grader who shot himself at the school last week. Hawkins’ father told News 13 last week his son had been bullied at the school.
Gusaeff said the same students who bullied Hawkins continue to bully her son.
“I’ve heard kids at the bus stop say he was a coward for what he did,” said Gusaeff.
Gusaeff is keeping her son out of school right now, but said she took him to the school for a couple of hours Wednesday morning where she and her son both filled out written complaints.
“He said 'Mommy they took him. Why did they have to take him? And now they’re coming after me',” said Gusaeff.
Neither school district officials nor Seminole County Sheriff’s Office investigators are commenting yet on what may have led to last week’s student suicide, or if bullying was involved. But school district officials said bullying is always something they take very seriously. They are stressing to students that they can always report problems anonymously.
“Because a lot of students feel like there will be retribution if they do come forward, so that’s in our policy, and that’s something that every school has to have some sort of means for that to take place,” said Lisa Page, a Prevention Specialist with Seminole County Public Schools.
Meanwhile Gusaeff and her son are pushing for action against the ones they say are responsible for the bullying.
“Give justice and put that kid in jail, in juvenile,” said Gusaeff’s son, Jordan.
Before last week's suicide, Seminole County Public Schools already had a cyber-bullying workshop planned for Wednesday night. The workshop was designed to give parents tools to prevent and deal with online bullying dangers.