Mom accuses school district of allowing daughter to be bullied: ‘She was their slave’

An Illinois mother is calling out Frankfort School District 157-C, and demanding a stop to bullying, after claims that her 10-year-old daughter has been forced to face her bullies yet another school year.

Stephanie Pearson-Davis recently revealed that her daughter, Sydney, a fifth-grader at Chelsea Intermediate school, has been forced to share a classroom with the same students she claims bullied her a couple years back.

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Pearson-Davis told NBC Chicago that she hired a civil rights attorney in 2017 to help deal with the harassment, and that Sydney was moved to a new classroom, and the bullying ceased. Now the mother claims that two years later, her daughter was placed in a 5th grade classroom with the very same peers that harassed her, and that the bullying has resumed.

“They would make me carry their stuff, go fill up their water bottles, carry their jackets,” Sydney said. “I was scared if I didn’t hold their stuff, something would happen to me, so I just did what they told me to do.”

A frustrated Pearson-Davis added, “They tried to make it seem as though it was a game they were playing. Where my child carries all this stuff for them. And they stole her markers and her school supplies.”

Child wanted acceptance

In a separate interview, Pearson-Davis told CBS Chicago,  the students “demanded that [Sydney] carry their art bag, or demanded that she carry their coat…she would do that, and I think there was one time that she said ‘I didn’t like that. I didn’t like what that felt like,’ but otherwise she was trying to [say] ‘Okay, I’m gonna do it, because I want to be friends, I want to be accepted.’ But that did not happen. It was the stealing of her supplies in class,” she said.

“Essentially, she was their slave, or their personal assistant in the classroom. We’ve seen the stories of 9-year-olds hanging themselves. That is my biggest fear for my child.”

Pearson-Davis also said that the school finally decided last week that no bullying took place with Sydney, and instead, cited the incident as ‘inappropriate,’ at most.

“They finally decided last week that no bullying occurred, and that the behaviors were inappropriate, but they had not risen to a level of … that they weren’t pervasive, and that Sydney had not been harmed,” Pearson-Davis said.

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In a statement obtained by NBC Chicago, the district superintendent defended the school’s handling of the situation, adding that they take bullying allegations seriously.

“District 157-C takes all parent concerns very seriously, and the well-being of our students is of the utmost importance,” the statement read.

Pearson says that she will hold a protest at a school board meeting on Thursday night, demanding a committee to deal with bullying at the school and surrounding school area.