GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Some middle school students are facing criminal charges for an alleged racially-motivated assault in class.
Police said the students called a female student the N-word and whipped her with a belt several times.
Parents told Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes that a teacher witnessed the assault and didn’t report it.
Fernandes talked to the victim’s parents, who said that because the incident wasn’t reported right away, the victim had to sit in class with the students she said assaulted her.
When her parents went to the school the next day, administrators said they had no idea the assault happened.
Channel 2 Action News is not identifying the family because the victim is a minor.
“I don’t think time heals wounds when it comes to racism,” the girl’s father told Fernandes.
The father said the incident happened at Radloff Middle School in Gwinnett County. His teenage daughter told him that some Hispanic kids repeatedly yell racial slurs at her.
Things got so bad that the girl texted her mother on March 30, saying she didn’t feel safe anymore because the same students assaulted her.
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“She was sitting with a Hispanic child, and the other Hispanic child approached them and said, ‘How much for your monkey?’ And the child responded, ‘$450.’ And so the main child said alright, looked at my daughter and said, ‘Alright, I own you now (expletive). Do my homework slave.’ My daughter refused and that’s when the child asked the other child to remove his belt and he gave her some lashings. And that’s when the teacher initially said, ‘Alright you boys, leave her alone,’” the father said.
But the victim said they did it again and the teacher did nothing.
When the parents went to the school the next day, they said administrators confirmed the teacher didn’t report it.
The principal sent out a letter, calling the incident despicable. The students were suspended and are now facing criminal charges.
The father told Fernandes that he is satisfied with how administrators handled things, but they don’t understand why the teacher didn’t take this seriously enough to report it.
“There’s no safe place. There should be several options for kids in that type of situation where they can walk out immediately, go to someone immediately, have something done immediately,” the victim’s father said.
Fernandes contacted the district to find out if the teacher was disciplined or had to be re-trained.
She learned Monday afternoon the teacher is now under investigation.
The victim’s father said what made things even worse was the kids who assaulted his daughter took to social media.
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