Plano school administrators are partnering with cops to look into allegations that a Black Haggard Middle School student was harassed and humiliated by classmates.
According to Plano police spokesman David Tilley, a mother of a student called the school resource officer at Haggard earlier this week.
Tilley said he couldn’t say anything further because the incident was still being investigated. However, viral social media posts allege racial and homophobic bullying by the student’s Plano classmates.
Thousands of parents have signed a change.org petition urging Plano ISD officials to intervene and protect students.
According to a district spokeswoman, the administration was aware of the bullying complaints and was working with law enforcement to investigate.
In an email, Lesley Range-Stanton wrote, “Our district does not tolerate or condone bullying or harassing behavior and is taking prompt and remedial action to address concerns.” She said the incident happened on Tuesday, was off-campus, and had nothing to do with school.
Disciplinary actions taken against individual students were not discussed.
At a sleepover, the Black student was allegedly “tortured for days and forced to drink his white former teammates’ urine,” according to the Next Generation Action Network, who also claims he was abused and called slurs. Plano officials were chastised by the organization, who said they had not taken sufficient action.
In a news release, the organization said, “We are calling for a federal investigation into this racially motivated hate crime.” A protest was also called for Friday.
Kim T. Cole, an attorney for the student’s family, said she was working on gathering more video evidence.
