Fla. mom claims school ignored bully who threatened to shoot daughter in TikTok video
A Florida mom has gone to war with her daughter’s former school, claiming they failed to remove a student who threatened to shoot the fifth grader in a TikTok video.
Trisha Brown said the perpetrator was allowed to remain in class at Blake Academy in Lakeland while her child was too scared to return — and that administrators threatened the mom with trespassing charges when she continued to complain.
Created last month, the video uses pictures of her 11-year-old child, the alleged tormentor and two other students superimposed onto an image of a school hallway.
Using subtitles and computer-generated voices, her daughter is depicted demanding lunch money from her nemesis, who refuses.
“I said I ain’t giving up nothing,” the bully states before an image of what appears to be a water gun appears under her face.
After more words are exchanged, the sounds of gunfire rings out and kids can be heard screaming. A skull emoji then covers Brown’s daughter’s face as her picture topples over on its side.
“Jit got popped,” a student exclaims. “In the hallway. That’s crazy.”
The student later told Brown’s daughter that she was going to target her mother and “beat her ass,” the mom said.
Brown, 30, of Plant City, said she was alerted to the video and went to the school to demand that the student be removed from class, but that her request was denied.
The mom emotionally recounted her story at a meeting of the Polk County School Board last week, telling members that the bully was allowed to continue remain in school while her daughter stayed home out of fear.
Brown, 33, told The Post that school administrators eventually told her not to return to the school to protest their handling of the case or face trespassing raps.
“No mother should have to fight this hard to have her child protected,” she said. “And I hope with all the noise I’m making that no mom has to fight this hard again.”
After she began publicizing the incident last month, the district released a statement to parents asserting that they could not discipline her daughter’s bully because the activity did not take place on campus.
Officials said they investigated the incident but found no history of bullying between the two students and that they had been friendly with each other.
“The parent’s behavior has escalated to a point of disrupting school operations, which resulted in her being trespassed from campus,” the district said in the statement, adding that they aided her in alerting local police.
Brown denies that they initially helped her escalate the matter legally, and told her she should only go through the school.
“It is not uncommon for students, especially children of this age, to do foolish things on social media,” the school’s statement continued. “We take all of these incidents seriously and investigate them to determine if there is a credible threat to anyone’s safety.”
Brown said she contacted cops, and that the State Attorney’s office is now probing the incident.
Her daughter, who did not return to class for the remaining 10 days of this school year, will attend another school next year.
“I wanted that little girl suspended for the rest of the year,” Brown said. “She should have been removed instantly.”
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