Multiple online media outlets -- including a North Carolina television station -- are reporting a local parent has filed suit against Mount Airy City Schools, alleging the parent's child showed physical evidence of abuse -- including an alleged attempt by other students to sodomize the youth with a toothbrush -- and was possibly a victim of a pattern of bullying.
While the television station did not list where the lawsuit had been filed, the website dockets.justia.com claims the suit was filed on July 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
The suit, according to the website, claims the school system is guilty of civil rights violations. In the court records, the mother is referred to as "Jane Doe" and the youth as "John Doe."
Another outlet, publiclawlibrary.org, stated the lawsuit alleges the youth, who was 12 at the time, was the victim of bullying and assault, with multiple allegations listed.
The Mount Airy News has not yet been able to independently confirm details of the story with the federal court. Surry County court officials had no records of any lawsuit filed locally.
Mount Airy City Schools spokesperson Carrie Venable said the district had no comment on any alleged lawsuit as the district has not received any documentation on the matter.
According to media reports, the middle school student was on the receiving end of bullying and his mother reportedly spoke of her concerns to the administration at Mount Airy Middle School in the fall of 2021. Also, the parent was told by administrators on at least one occasion her child had been the victim of a physical altercation at the school in February 2022.
The mother expressed concerns for her child's safety including on an upcoming field trip that March but was assured, the report said, that her child would be supervised and looked after on the trip. The report went on to say when the child returned home from the trip, the mother ascertained based on his behavior that all was not well.
After observing her child being withdrawn, the next morning she saw a "foot long bruise" on his shoulder and later that day she saw a softball sized scrape on their back "and several smaller ones that were scabbed over or oozing pus."
A discussion followed and the child described how the injuries were received over the course of multiple attacks spread over multiple days on the field trip, including at least two alleged attempts by the other students to sodomize the victim using an electric toothbrush. The suit alleges on at least one occasion an adult chaperone witnessed the youth being dragged across the floor toward the bathroom and did nothing to stop the assault.
Carrie Venable, spokesperson for Mount Airy City Schools, had a hard time addressing questions about the alleged lawsuit, she said, because the school district had not been served with any documentation of such a lawsuit as of late Monday.
“It feels strange to give a statement when we don’t have anything to look at,” she said.
“I have not been contacted by the news that has been publishing this stuff,” Venable said of the television station reporting on the lawsuit, “But, we have not been served anything… We have nothing to look at.”
She said she believes normal protocol should be when stories reach the media is that the news gathering organization reaches out to the public information officer for a statement from the school district, as The Mount Airy News did.
“To be honest, they usually will call us when they get a story from a parent or whatever, and we’ll talk stuff out and figure it out because I hate for anyone to waste their time, but I got nothing from them,” she said referring to WGHP TV in Greensboro.
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