More parents come forward saying bullying is an issue at Humble ISD, district not taking action
HUMBLE, Texas - In October, FOX 26 was the first to tell you about a Kingwood Park student who was allegedly strangled at school. His mother, Larissa Powell claims another student choked her 14-year-old son with a lanyard, leaving marks on his neck.
Powell said Humble ISD didn't do enough to keep her son safe.
Since then, more parents have come forward with similar complaints about the district.
On Thursday, two Humble ISD families said their kids were physically attacked by other students. Both incidents were caught on video, yet when complaints were initially made to administrators, the parents say no action was taken and the response was underwhelming.
In September, Charles and Kelsey Stewart said their 15-year-old daughter was physically assaulted by another female student at Kingwood High School.
“Our daughter was pushed from the back into a metal handrail, pushed to the ground, kicked and punched in the face. It was reported to the da as a mutual combative situation and no surveillance footage provided,” said Charles.
The fight apparently started over stolen Air pods and was caught on video by other students, as well as school surveillance cameras.
“She's like crying out for help and there are adults sitting there and they were selling football raffle tickets so the adults weren’t allowed to get up from their chairs to help her because there was money that would be stolen if they had gotten up. So the rule was that they had to sit down and stay,” said Kelsey.
Much like Powell's complaints, the couple claims the district and its police department dropped the ball.
“I just felt so helpless. I was sitting across from them watching the video of my child screaming and they were just sitting there kind of cold being like we did everything we could. (They said) it’s so crazy that the DA won’t accept charges. We don’t know what else we can do other than apologize,” said Kelsey.
The Stewarts said they later found out that Humble ISD initially failed to turn over the evidence of the fight to investigators. It was only after Charles said he checked with prosecutors directly.
“The tape was never sent to the DA. Prosecutors never got a chance to see what actually happened. So when they did, they accepted charges. I got a phone call within an hour that they accepted assault charges on the assailant,” Charles said.
Their daughter has been home-schooled ever since the fight. The Stewarts currently do not plan to have their daughter return to school at Humble ISD.
In another case, a 5-year-old girl at Deerwood Elementary apparently stole a marker from an 8-year-old on the school bus. The student allegedly proceeded to retaliate physically.
”That child decided to grab her, claw her, bite her, and scratch her, all right behind the actual bus driver,” said her mother, Ashlie, who did not want to use her last name or have her face shown on camera.
Ashlie made similar complaints that the district didn't do much to address the alleged attack.
“In the video, she’s screaming for help. She was completely traumatized when I picked her up. There were pictures of it that I took after we cleaned her up. I sent it to the school and I talked to the vice principal but we didn’t really go anywhere with that after that. They didn’t discuss anything with me,” said Ashlie.
FOX 26 reached out to Humble ISD for a response. A spokesperson tells us they take any allegation very seriously, but due to federal student privacy laws, the district cannot discuss specifics of cases.
However, in a statement they said:
"Inappropriate behavior is not tolerated. We take any allegation very seriously. We have a comprehensive process in place that includes an app monitored 24 hours a day for students and parents to report concerns anonymously. When an allegation is raised, we thoroughly investigate, notify parents of the students involved, collaborate with police and prosecutors, assign discipline in accordance with the state education code, and issue written notices of findings to parents. We work with families and are thoroughly dedicated to student safety and well-being.”