HANOVER COUNTY, Va. — Hanover County Schools Spokesperson Chris Whitley said it is not the school system’s "practice to require a student who has been bullied to change his or her class schedule" after a mother of a fourth grader told CBS 6 her son was moved to another class after he was racially bullied.
Jamal Baylor-Ali’s mom, Nyseria Baylor-Ali, said a student in her son’s class at Cold Harbor Elementary School called him a racial slur back in October.
“After days of saying he wanted to be homeschooled, that’s when he told me, 'They have been calling me an African-American monkey,'" Baylor Ali said.
The very next month, "he was told the Kamala Harris is a bad n— and he is a good n—," she said.
This time, the slur came from another student in his class.
Baylor-Ali said at that point the principal of the school and the then-head of elementary education with Hanover schools called a meeting with her after she sent an email to Interim Superintendent Lisa Pennycuff.
She said they suggested moving her son to another classroom as a solution because he was the only African-American student in his class.
"I feel like moving him didn’t do anything else but hurt him. It didn’t fix the situation because it happened three more times after that," Baylor-Ali said.
She said she was frustrated with how the school system handled the racial bullying, so she contacted CBS 6 with her concerns.
Watch: Hanover family fed up with racial bullying on 4th grader
We reached out to Hanover County schools on March 4 to ask about Jamal and how they handled his situation, but the division said it is prohibited by law from sharing details concerning matters about specific students.
However, they did share that the day after we reached out to them, a message was sent to all fourth grade families at Cold Harbor from the principal.
In the message, Allison Hunt Mullens confirmed that hateful and racist terms have been used by some students.
She said the school needs parents' help to make it stop.
Hunt Mullens also wrote that the school will continue to hold students accountable to the Code of Student Conduct.
CBS 6 took a look at Hanover’s Code of Conduct for elementary students and found that using slurs based upon someone's race can lead to a level one, two, or three response out of five, which is the most severe, on the division’s disciplinary scale.
At the lowest level, the student doing the bullying might have to change seats, attend Saturday school, or have an in-school suspension that lasts up to two days.
At the second level, the student doing the bullying might be removed from the classroom for the short term, have a schedule change, or have an in-school suspension that lasts up to three days.
And, at level three, the bullying may result in the student’s short-term removal from the school for an out-of-school suspension that lasts up to three days.
Nowhere in the Hanover Student Code of Conduct does it suggest moving the victim of the bullying to another class.
“There needs to be harsher consequences so that way they know, hey, this has consequences, let me not say that, and then their friends know this person got consequences that’s not OK to do because I don’t want those consequences,” Baylor-Ali said.
The Hanover Student Code of Conduct also references the Virginia Department of Education’s bullying model policy.
In that policy, there is a letter from the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights that suggests to school divisions that appropriate steps to end harassment should not penalize the student who was harassed.
For example, it states any separation of the target of the bullying from an alleged harasser should be designed to minimize the burden on the target’s education program, for example, not requiring the target to change his or her class schedule.
We asked Hanover County Schools why they suggested moving Jamal to another classroom as opposed to the students doing the bullying.
Chris Whitley, the Assistant Superintendent for Engagement and Legislative Affairs, said while they are prohibited by law from sharing details about specific students, he said “it is not our practice to require a student who has been bullied to change his or her class schedule, and we would not do so without the parent’s support."
Baylor-Ali said she did give consent, but said she felt like that was the only solution the school system offered her.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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