NewsState

Actions

Florida mom says bullying led to daughter's bathroom beating at Collier County school

Posted at
and last updated

A mother is demanding answers from a Florida school district after her sixth grade daughter was caught on camera being beaten in a school bathroom.

The 11-year-old student claims she has been bullied since the beginning of the school year.

The incident took place at Immokalee Middle School in Collier County about three weeks ago, according to the mother.

In a cellphone video that was circulated via social media, you can see a girl attacked, punched repeatedly on the head as other students giggle in the background.

“It makes me feel so angry and I can’t believe my daughter is going through this,” said the mother, who goes by Yesenia.

She said her daughter was too scared to tell anyone what happened but has been "depressed" recently. She eventually discovered the video through a neighbor this week. 

“If she has something that they want, if she doesn’t give it up, that’s why they start picking on her,” Yesenia said. “She had chips. She didn’t want to give her chips to the girls. Then they started calling her names, cussing at her, telling her very bad words.”

Yesenia says she brought the video to the attention of school administrators who tell her they are investigating. However, in the meantime, Yesenia says her daughter still has to sit in the same history class as her attacker where she says she’s still being bullied. 

Yesenia says she wants the school district to do more to address the bullying to make her daughter feel safer at school. She adds she’s considering withdrawing her child from the school and pressing charges on her daughter’s attacker.

As of Wednesday night, the Collier County School District has not released a comment regarding the situation.