NAACP investigates Waddell Elementary School bullying case

Courtney Early broke into tears Tuesday while recounting the bullying that her 8-year-old son allegedly endured at Waddell Elementary School.

Early described the details at a news conference organized by the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which has launched an investigation.

“It started the second week of school,” said Early, who held a photo of her son, whose right eye was swollen shut. “He came home covered in dirt saying that a little boy had beat him up while getting off the bus. He said on the way home the little boy kept saying, ‘I’m going to beat your a-- when you get off of this bus, all the way home. And when he got off the bus, the boy actually followed through with it.”

Early, 25, said her son, Melquavion, is a second-grader at Waddell Elementary and the bully is a fourth-grader. She said Melquavion was bullied while taking the school bus home from August to October despite repeated complaints to school administrators and district officials.

On Oct. 20, the fourth-grader punched her son in the eye, which resulted in his eye injury, she said. Melquavion can no longer see from that eye and will have to undergo surgery, she said.

Early said she was arrested for disorderly conduct after she tried to discuss the incident with the school bus driver the following day. She said the charges were later dismissed, but the district still hasn’t addressed the bullying .

“I went over to the school in August more than 10 times to talk to them, because the incidents were happening almost every day,” she said. “And when I went over there, it was the same story. They were telling me, ‘We’re going to get to the bottom of this. We’re going to find the child who’s bullying him.’ And nothing ever was done.”

One district transportation official told her there was nothing they could do, she said, and suggested she contact the Columbus Police Department.

Early said Melquavion and his brother, a kindergartener, still go to Waddell. She said she didn’t remove Melquavion because he likes his teacher, and she didn’t want him to feel like he was being punished for what happened.

On Tuesday, the Ledger-Enquirer contacted the Muscogee County School District for a response to the allegations, and Communications Director Valerie Fuller responded by email with the following statement: “While we are not privy to the reported press conference/statements, bullying is an issue that the district takes seriously and strives to prevent. The school district policies on bullying are available on the district website. In addition, the Behavior Code and Discipline policy handbook is attached (See Rule 4 on Page 48). Students and staff are also routinely trained throughout the school year to recognize, report, and appropriately react to bullying. The MCSD does not publically address any specific issues or problems related to any particular student.”

But NAACP President Tonza Thomas said the district has a bullying problem that needs to be addressed.

“Muscogee County School District, the NAACP is putting you on notice that we have some remedies and we would like to help you curb these bullying issues in Muscogee County School District,” she said, calling for improved prevention policies, clear and consistent consequences, as well as psychological evaluations of children who are bullying.

Thomas said the Waddell case raises many questions that should concern the community and encouraged parents whose children are being bullied to call an NAACP hotline at 706-987-9130.

“They talked about having a meeting for that particular bus to discuss the discipline policies on that bus, and still, they dropped the ball because it never occurred,” she said. “There are plenty of emails that we have from school administrators about this very case.

“We have a lot of intelligent children,” she said. “Many of them are black men. Our young boys are growing up very smart, but they are getting bullied in elementary, middle and high school. ‘Oh, you a nerd, or you a this or you a that.’”

Other speakers at the news conference included NAACP legal redress chairman, Joseph Wiley; Barbara Pierce, education chairwoman; and economic development chair, J. Aleem Hud.

Wiley said Early begged for school administrators and district officials to intervene, and they should be held accountable.

“What we found is the law requires anyone that has knowledge of a violent or bullying incident to report it,” he said. “We have asked for the reports, there are no reports filed. The only time a report was filed was on Oct. 20 when her son was beat so bad that he lost vision in one eye and now has to have surgery.

“They dropped the ball, they didn’t follow the law,” he said. “And they’ve pushed us to a point where we must appeal to the public now to call them to focus back on the bullying policy, because it doesn’t matter how much we improve education, how much money we invest. If we allow the bad students to victimize the good students then we’re going to end up with a situation where our whole effort is negated.”

Pierce, a former member of the Muscogee County School Board, said she has talked with several school officials about the case and no one has been able to explain why hasn’t been addressed.

“When I was on the school board, we always had a tribunal when it was something where it was a bodily attack, harassment or whatever,” she said. “This time (that step) was not taken. So it means we’re not taking it seriously as a school board, we’re not taking it serious as a community.

“We’re already afraid to send our children to school because of the weapons,” she said. “Bullying is just as bad. Bullying has kids going home now wanting to commit suicide.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 6:17 PM with the headline "NAACP investigates Waddell Elementary School bullying case."