Her daughter was bullied, so this Columbus mom cofounded anti-bullying group

Two Columbus mothers have started a grassroots organization to stop bullying in the Muscogee County School District.

The yet-to-be-named group’s inaugural event will be a forum June 6, from 6-8 p.m., in the Mildred L. Terry Public Library, 640 Veterans Parkway.

Audra Nesseth, cofounder of the group, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an interview Friday that the Facebook page “Stop Bullying in Muscogee County Schools” has attracted 420 members since she was motivated to establish it after her fourth-grade daughter was bullied on an MCSD bus last month.

Her daughter was slapped in the face, punched in the stomach and had her hair pulled by a fifth-grade girl while another one videoed the attack on her cellphone – two seats behind the bus driver, who didn’t intervene, Nesseth said.

Those fifth-grade girls were banned from the bus after Nesseth reported the bullying to the assistant principal at her daughter’s school, she said. Although she said privacy law prevented officials from telling her whether those fifth-grade girls were suspended, she is satisfied with the way MCSD handled her complaint. But she isn’t satisfied with the prevalence of bullying, which she learned from posting her daughter’s story on the “Columbus GA Concerned Citizens Forum” Facebook page.

Whether they were public or private posts, “the messages poured in, hundreds of them,” she said. So she realized, “This is a huge problem in our district, and we need to work with the community and the school district to come up with solutions. … I felt this was my calling to do something.”

Nesseth, who has two other children, including a special-needs son, partnered with Anchors for Autism cofounder Lisa Jenkins to start this anti-bullying group. It was a natural fit because combating bullying will be the Anchors for Autism platform during the 2017-18 school year, Jenkins said.

“We’re going to make this (anti-bullying group) into a nonprofit,” Jenkins said. “We’re hoping to raise $20,000 to make it a campaign.”

MCSD superintendent David Lewis, Muscogee County School Board chairwoman Pat Hugley Green and state Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, (Green’s sister-in-law) are scheduled to speak during the June 6 forum, Nesseth said. The purpose is to educate the community about bullying and brainstorm solutions to stop it, she said.

This story was originally published June 2, 2017 at 2:19 PM with the headline "Her daughter was bullied, so this Columbus mom cofounded anti-bullying group."