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A mom in San Antonio is speaking out after thousands of people watched a video of her son getting beat up. 8th grader Michael Ayala says he was threatened by another student at school. He went to a coach to tell him to look out for the bully, after which the coach said, “yeah I got you.”
But, the fight happened anyway, and the coach failed to intervene. Now, Michael’s mom Valerie wants answers from the school district. She posted to Facebook: “The Principal, my son and I had a meeting the next morning. The Coach was called up to the front office for the meeting and said he would be there and he never showed up.”
She told reporters her son plans on transferring schools, that he suffers from ADHD, anxiety, and depression, and it’s even worse since the fight. Valerie said she wanted her Facebook post to go viral “so that something can be done.” And, so far, that strategy is working. The post has over 100,000 reactions and has been shared over 250,000 times.
The video of the confrontation has since been taken down from Facebook. The Southwest Independent School District is conducting an investigation into the incident, and their preliminary findings seem to contradict Michael’s story, and one of the comments on KENS 5’s report on YouTube disputes Michael’s story as well.
A commenter named Kelly wrote: “Tf Omar ain’t no bully don’t say shit if you don’t know Omar personally stupid as bitches.” And, Jared Wade wrote on Valerie’s Facebook: “Then teach ur kid not to make death threats and racist comments towards another kid’s mom. Teach ur kid to stop talking so much shit and stop bullying other kids cause some kids don’t play when it comes to their MOM!!!”
The school district has not tweeted about the incident, but they did release a statement, which reads:
On Thursday, Jan. 25, around 3 p.m., two students engaged in a mutual altercation that was immediately intervened by a SWISD police officer. We cannot disclose disciplinary actions taken against the students, but we can say both parties did comply with the officer’s directives.
So, at the very least, this was a “mutual altercation,” meaning Michael can’t have been totally blameless in the incident. What do you guys think? Is violence ever justified even if someone is being a bully? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @WhatsTrending.
