Was BB Gun Last Resort for Angry Mom?
Cited: Daily News
After arming her 12-year-old son with a BB gun and a knife to defend himself against school bullies, a Connecticut mother has been arrested according to police. Sylvia Mojica of Hartford has been charged with risk of injury to a minor, according to authorities.
The 38-year-old allegedly put the pistol and blade in the backpack of the child, who now may be suspended or expelled from Burns Elementary School.
School officials are looking into the claims that he was being bullied. According to the Hartford Courant, security officers at the school had once seen the boy being chased by students.
Hartford school officials say a 12-year-old boy was caught with a BB gun and a folding knife in his backpack was not bullied in school.
Initial reports said the boy’s mother told officials he needed the weapons because he was being bullied. But David Medina, a school system spokesman, says officials were told the boy was carrying the weapons on October 22 because of an altercation in his neighborhood the night before.
Medina said that encounter involved adults and teens who did not attend the same school.
The boy’s mother, 38-year-old Sylvia Mojica (moe-HEE’-kuh) is accused of providing the boy with the weapons. She has been charged with risk of injury to a minor and is due in court October 29. The boy told school officials that he had the items in his backpack.
Administrators say the boy now faces a suspension or even expulsion. They are also investigating the bullying allegations.
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It was not immediately clear if Mojica had a lawyer.
The charges come the same day that the U.S. Department of Education issued new guidelines warning schools that tolerating harassment could put them in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.
That move follows several high-profile cases of bullying in recent months. Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights, said the department was responding to what it senses as a growing problem within schools.
She said the Office for Civil Rights had received 800 complaints alleging harassment over the last fiscal year, and that reports from the field indicate an increase of harassment against certain groups including gays and lesbians, as well as Muslim students after the 9/11 attacks.
According to a USA Today survey released October 26, nearly half of American high school students ages 15-18 (47%) report being bullied or teased at least once during the last year and 50% also say they have bullied, teased or taunted others.
According to the Clemson University Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life, one in six students admit to being bullied 2-3 or more every month.
In January, a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl, Phoebe Prince (left), took her own life after being relentlessly bullied by her classmates, prosecutors said. Six teenagers have been charged. One, a 19-year-old charged with statutory rape, is expected in court Tuesday for a hearing.
A Minnesota school district unanimously passed changes to its anti-bullying and harassment policies to clearly list protected classes (including race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, disability, age, poverty and sexual orientation), three months after 15-year-old Justin Aaberg, of Andover, Minn., hanged himself in his room. His friends told his mother he had been a frequent victim of anti-gay bullying.
Asher Brown of Cypress, Tex., and Seth Walsh of Tehachapi, Calif., both 13, and 15-year Billy Lucas of Greensburg, Ind., who each committed suicide during the past few months, were said to be targets of anti-gay bullying.
In September, 18-year-old Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi committed suicide after his roommate secretly webcast his dorm-room tryst with a man, police said. The roommate and another student have been charged with invasion of privacy and authorities are considering whether to add a hate-crime charge.
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My Take: As a recipient of childhood bullying, I think schools should be more attentive than they are to the matter. I also think that anyone who causes someone to commit suicide because of some type of bullying or harassment should be charged and the family should get a NYC wrongful death lawyer to sue them.
It seems to me that schools have walk through metal detectors to prevent weapons being brought into school, they could at least try to stop the bullying on school premises. In fact, more and more schools are bringing in metal detection equipment just for that purpose. If they can afford to do that, they can afford to teach their teachers what to look for to resolve bullying on school property.
Now that I am an adult, I understand the reason behind bullying. The reason is twofold. One part of it is to have fun and parents should teach their child that is not a good way to have fun. The other part is that the kids are afraid of something and the only way to get over that fear is to berate it. Even a NYC car accidents lawyer can tell the parents that they can be sued for harassment if your child continues.
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