Jennifer Terry, Bledsoe County’s director of schools.A Bledsoe County mother says the county school system is ignoring an ongoing bullying problem she first reported in early September.
Christy Smith Hobbs said her daughter and two others were bullied and assaulted Sept. 9 after an incident on the bus two days earlier.
Her daughter, another girl and a boy were “goofing off” on Sept. 7, throwing pieces of pencil eraser and paper wads at each other for a few minutes on the bus ride home. Other students on the bus started calling names, some vulgar and abusive, and making threats, Hobbs said.
She said the bus driver reviewed the surveillance tape and, the next day, chastised the students involved, including Hobbs’ daughter and friends. Hobbs’ daughter was handed an eight-day suspension from the bus for her actions, she said. It’s unclear what punishment, if any, the other students were given.
On Sept. 9, the girls ended up on another bus because their regular driver had to drive for the football game that night, Hobbs said. She said her daughter and two others were harassed on the bus for an hour and 15 minutes – the other students threw things at them, yanked clumps of hair out, poked them in the head with pencils, and threatened to come to her daughter’s home and beat her up.