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Mother’s Facebook post about bullying at Colonial Heights school goes viral

Posted at 8:00 PM, May 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-22 20:06:49-04

COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. -- A Colonial Heights mother reached out to CBS 6 concerned about constant bullying at her daughter's middle school.

"I shouldn't as a mother, get phone calls from my daughter, whose in the bathroom crying, because she's afraid to be in school," said Edy Young, who also went to Facebook to express her concerns in a now viral post.

Young's daughter is in 7th grade at Colonial Heights Middle School. Back in February, Young says her daughter was attacked and it was recorded on video.

"Unfortunately she was beat up walking home from school," said Young.

Now months later, problems showing up on her report card.

"It affects her grades of course, because you can't concentrate when you're scared," said Young.

Edy Young

Pastor Mike Tolbert with Highlands United Methodist Church says he's heard stories about a bullying problem at the school.

Tolbert has about 20 middle school students in his youth group. He says about "90 Percent" of them have complained about being bullied.

He says the teens tell him there is a lot of verbal bullying and some physical altercations as well.

"People throwing stuff at each other, putting stuff in food, during cafeteria time," he said described what students have told him.

Colonial Heights Schools Superintendent Dr. Joseph Cox says he is always willing to meet parents, grandparents and students who have concerns.

Colonial Heights Middle School

"I am happy to assist but in order for me to assist, I need to know specifically from a person, what is going on and how we can best help them work through that," he said.

Dr. Cox says Social Media is playing a big role in problems in school:

"When you start to add social media, when you start to add the instantaneous response that you can make to people, whether it's Instagram, Snapchat, whatever it may be, there's no doubt that it's more complicated than it was years ago. So much takes place in the neighborhood, so much takes place in social media outside the school, that I just think you have some contributing factors that you probably didn't have 20 or 30 years ago."

Pastor Tolbert says he still has concerns and hopes something can be done.

"They need to be there, they need to have their education, they need to be able to get their education in a way that isn't going to cause them long-term emotional distress".

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