A single mother is seeking justice after her 15-year-old son was brutally attacked by a group of students at T.A. Thompson Junior High School last week Tuesday.
Tiffany McGregor told The Nassau Guardian that her son, a ninth-grade student at the school, was a victim of a violent attack that left him in excruciating pain with severe swelling to his face.
According to McGregor, the altercation unfolded when her son was struck by a Mystic juice bottle and retaliated by throwing the bottle back at the boys, who then began to beat him.
McGregor said she was alerted to the attack by her daughter via phone call, who then drove with her to the school where she met the heartbreaking picture of her battered son.
“When I saw my son’s face, I kicked off my shoes, I said ‘Where are they, because I’m tired of this,’” McGregor said.
“Over and over, the same thing and nobody trying to help this little boy.
“This boy is being attacked, he don’t have nobody to protect him. He don’t have a daddy. His daddy died. He only has me, and I have a heart condition, and this isn’t fair.”
Distraught, McGregor demanded to speak with officials upon arrival at the school and resorted to filming a live video on Facebook while on campus that has since been deleted.
“Nobody came to talk to me, and when the school police finally came out, she said he was in an altercation and because he cannot identify the boys, they cannot take a statement,” McGregor said.
“I was crying. I said look at my son, look at my son, look at his face, look at what they did to my son.”
McGregor said she received no communication from the school regarding potential consequences for the attackers, and to make matters worse, her son revealed to her that he has been a victim of ongoing bullying, with last week’s incident being just one of multiple altercations stemming from seventh grade to now.
He told his mother that he was afraid to say anything.
McGregor said the revelation was painful.
Though she knew students had previously picked on her son for his appearance, she never understood the full extent of the situation.
“It broke my heart to realize that as a mother,” McGregor said emotionally.
“The school didn’t say nothing. What if he did kill himself due to this?”
McGregor told The Guardian that during his time at T.A Thompson, she believes he has been involved in four different altercations, the first of which occurred when he was only in the seventh grade.
At the time, the school facilitated a parent-teacher conference at the time, which McGregor described as a poor attempt to address the situation that yielded no long-term results.
In the aftermath of that first attack, McGregor said her son had to be chaperoned by a faculty member to and from his classes.
She expressed disappointment at not realizing sooner, recalling instances where her son would make up excuses not to attend school.
“He would say, ‘Mummy, I don’t feel like going to school, I’m not feeling good,” and I wouldn’t understand,” McGregor said.
McGregor said since the day of the attack, she has faced grave difficulty in trying to reach a resolution, as her numerous visits to the school, the Ministry of Education, and the education district office have proved to be frustrating and fruitless.
Following the attack, McGregor said she requested for the school to review the surveillance camera footage to ascertain exactly what happened, but to her knowledge, that did not happen.
She also shared that while at the district office last week Thursday, she was informed that officials there were never notified about the attack.
With the incident occurring over a week ago and her multiple calls to the ministry still unanswered, the mother expressed that she is concerned officials are trying to sweep the matter under the rug.
“When I went to the school Thursday, they said they have three boys, but it isn’t the boys,” McGregor said.
“But I said, y’all have cameras. Why aren’t you playing the cameras so you can see what happened? Then they told me to come to the office to get a parent-teacher conference letter.
“I said I’m not going to any conference to talk to nobody to tell me ‘I’m sorry,’ and tell them to shake hands like how they did last time in grade seven also.
“I said no. The guidance counselor still gave me the letter.”
She continued, “The school never said anything [to the district office]. I said this happened from Tuesday, and I had to carry him to the hospital.”
McGregor described her son as a humble, quiet, gentle young boy.
At her wit’s end, she said she is making plans to relocate him to a new school where she hopes he will be able to feel safe and learn without distractions.
“If the boy scared to be in school and he’s getting bullied every day, what is he learning?” McGregor said.
“Then the next time he go, he’s dead?”
The Guardian reached out to the Ministry of Education over the course of three days, but received no response.
