Mother arrested for confronting son’s homophobic bullies
Jamie Rathburn confronted her son’s homophobic bullies. (Fox 32/ Greenvile Co. Detention Center)
Jamie Rathburn, a South Carolina mother, was arrested last month for going into her son’s elementary school and confronting his homophobic bullies.
She claims the bullies called her son “gay” and “stupid,” but that her concerns were dismissed by the school.
The mother entered the school without permission and confronted a group of third grade children, as well as a teacher.
Beforehand she posted a video on Facebook saying she was going to the school, which prompted someone to alert the police.
Rathburn said, according to Fox 32: “He was told that he was ugly, that he was stupid, nobody cared, and he was called gay, he was cussed out, and when he reported those things he was told to ignore it.” She claimed the school had told her the behaviour was “boys playing rough.”
She also claimed that the treatment of her son became violent, and that bullies threw him off a sliding ladder by his neck and hit him with a computer.
“I’d like to take this to the top and really create change,” said mother of son targeted by homophobic bullies
Since her arrest, Rathburn has created a GoFundMe page to raise money for her legal fees as well as “to take this to the top and really create change.”
She wrote: “I’m ‘the mom that stormed the school’ apparently I should hire the best attorney I can, so I’m hoping that friends and supporters will help me, because I’d like to take this to the top and really create change, but I have to make sure that have a legal team in place.”
Posts on the page, and on Rathburn’s Facebook page, are largely supportive.
Comments on Jamie Rathburn’s GoFundMe page are supportive. (GoFundMe)
Other parents have supported Rathburn confronting her son’s homophobic bullies. (Jamie Rathburn/ Facebook)
According to Fox 32, Rathburn’s son will not be allowed to return to the school but will be attending another in the same district.
Rathburn wrote on her Facebook page that she would be attending a court date soon, and Greenville News reported that she had publicly apologised but had received a “no trespassing notice”, meaning she is no longer allowed on the school property.
“Maybe in her mind she was going there to confront a bully or a couple of children, but in not knowing who those were and choosing to yell at dozens of innocent kids, there is nothing appropriate about yelling at other people’s children’s in a school setting after you’ve snuck in illegally,” Beth Brotherton, director of communications for the Greenville school district where the incident happened, told Fox 32.
At the beginning of this year, a young girl in North Dakota died by suicide after being bullied for ‘questioning her sexuality.’
