ATLANTA — A group of high school students charged with robbing and beating up another student are still harassing the victim, according to the boy’s mother.
She says the school is not doing much because they are all in the special education program.
Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes was in southeast Atlanta, where she’s been working to report the story all week.
The student, who Channel 2 Action News is not identifying, goes to Maynard Jackson High School.
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When students in the special education program get into trouble, Georgia state law says there’s a certain criterion for how they can be disciplined.
But some parents believe certain students take advantage of that, so they want the state board of education to allow schools to deal with students case-by-case.
“When you’re at school, school is supposed to be the number one place to be safe,” the mother said. “I don’t even feel safe with him at this school.”
The mother asked for us to hide her identity because she said she can’t take any more harassment.
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She says a group of five students at Maynard Jackson jumped and robbed her son in a school bathroom a few weeks ago.
“(They) threw him against the wall, snatched ahold of his pocket and grabbed his wallet and snatched his necklace off of him,” she said.
Two of the boys have been kicked out of the school. But the other three students are back because they are in the special education program.
According to state law, they are disciplined differently, which varies depending on their Individualized Education Program.
“Just bc they have this certain IEP, that makes people feel like they can do a lot of things and get away with it,” the mother said.
Fernandes did some digging and found out that special education is governed by the federal Individuals With Disabilities in Education Act.
They say school personnel can make case-by-case determinations with students.
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This mother hopes administrators at Maynard Jackson do that with the three students she’s accusing of terrorizing her son.
“Because it’s not just my child that I’m worried about,” she said. “It’s more parents that are concerned, and I feel like I want all the kids to be safe.”
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