The devastated mother of a disabled girl has expressed her shock after disturbing online footage revealed the abuse her daughter endured at the hands of school bullies.
Myisha Hall recounts that her 12-year-old daughter had been subjected to weeks of bullying by the same girls, but she alleges that the school failed to notify her, leaving her to discover the incidents through distressing video recordings.
Videos capturing two harrowing attacks on her vulnerable daughter, occurring in the bathroom and an elevator at Conway Middle School in Orlando, Florida, depicted her being dragged around like a puppet, ultimately being shoved onto the cold tile floor while fellow students filmed the assault, laughing hysterically.
Her daughter, who suffers from chondrodysplasia punctata, a rare spinal condition resulting in one leg being shorter than the other, has undergone six surgeries since the age of five and was initially informed she would not live beyond the age of ten.
Speaking out about the horrifying attack, Myisha told the Daily Mail: ‘I’m sickened to see that video, I keep thinking about, what if she was paralyzed or never woke up? I’m mad and I’m disappointed, how can I drop my daughter off every day and not wonder what could happen? She’s defenseless, she can’t walk.”
In the video, posted on Instagram with the caption: “I will fight sb in da wheelchair,” the victim is shown on her knees before one of the bullies grabs her head and pushes her onto the bathroom floor.
Despite her efforts to stand up and defend herself, a taller girl seizes her by the arm, flinging her around the room before pushing her against the wall, while both the assailant and the girl recording the incident share laughter. Eventually, she manages to return to her wheelchair.
Myisha mentioned that when another parent stumbled upon the brutal video on social media, she promptly notified the girl’s mother. Myisha added that her daughter’s father, who has custody of her on weekends, had already been informed by another parent and was en route to pick her up and engage with school authorities, who, according to Myisha, had not informed either of them about the incident.
Despite the attacker’s claim that they were “just playing,” Myisha later discovered additional videos of the appalling mistreatment of her daughter circulating online, along with threatening posts and messages.
When she asked her daughter about the attacks, she told her: “Mom, they do this to me all the time”. Myisha, who admitted to being “furious” and not sleeping or eating for days, said: “It hurts me because I didn’t know my daughter was going through this.”
“She should feel safe and be protected and not afraid to tell people.” She was also angry that he school had failed to protect her, and hadn’t told her about the attacks prior to her seeing them on social media.
She continued: “It’s scary that she was enduring this and no one at the school did anything about it. If they had at the start this wouldn’t have happened. Disabled kids should be looked after all day and they should have informed me from the start. Both the school and the girls who did this are treating it like a joke. It’s not, and it’s not horseplay either – it’s bullying and assault,” she said.
School Principal, Joshua Bing, has since sent a message to all parents confirming that the school had immediately opened an investigation: “The school administration is aware of a few students who were involved in several extremely disturbing altercations that took place on campus,” he said, however, it’s unclear whether the girls involved have been disciplined.
