*An investigation has been launched in Plano, Texas after a 13-year-old boy was bullied and humiliated by his classmates during a sleepover.
“To call it bullying minimizes the gravity and the horror of this attack,” said Kim T. Cole, the attorney representing Summer Smith and her son SeMarion Humphrey, an eighth-grader at Haggard Middle School.
Cole and Smith told CNN that a student befriended SeMarion and invited him to a sleepover that took place on the weekend of February 12. Smith says SeMarion didn’t know beforehand that the sleepover would include some boys who had bullied him at school would. SeMarion was called the N-word, homophobic slurs, made to drink what appeared to be urine and shot at with BB guns in a sleepover that was “pre-calculated” and “racially motivated,” Cole said. Another video shows SeMarion being slapped once while asleep, Cole claimed.
SeMarion also faced harassment while he was on the football team, which led him to quit during the 2019-2020 season. According to Smith, SeMarion reported the alleged harassment to the coach and a school counselor, but she said she felt school officials brushed it off as “boys will be boys.”
SeMarion did not initially tell anyone about what allegedly transpired at the sleepover because the boys threatened him, Cole said. He didn’t go back to school until the week of February 22 because of a snowstorm the week before, the attorney said.
Back at school, he was asked by a classmate if he really drank the urine. Cole told CNN SeMarion didn’t initially remember the alleged urine incident because he had taken sleep medication that night for his anxiety. The classmate then showed him the video that was being shared around the school, the attorney added.
In a video message published Thursday by the Plano Independent School District, superintendent Sara Bonser said, “the district immediately launched an investigation,” adding, “Incidents like this affect our whole community. I want to let our community know that Plano ISD does not and will not tolerate bullying or harassment and believes every student must be treated with dignity and respect.”
In a statement to CNN, the school district said Haggard Middle School leaders and counselors “immediately began working closely and carefully with all involved students and their parents.” They added: “Since Plano ISD employs members of local law enforcement as school resource officers, the Plano Police Department was immediately involved.”
Plano Police Department Public Information Officer David Tilley told CNN the department is “aggressively investigating this case.”
On Monday, Roland Martin spoke with Humphrey, Smith, and Cole about this disturbing story.
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