Mother seeks answers after racist schoolyard incident goes viral

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Alana Jackson’s 8-year-old son, Jordan, and his 4-year-old sister, J’Niaha, were playing on the playground at their school after school hours while they waited for their mother to come pick them up when another boy, who was the child of one of the teachers there, began to throw mulch at Jordan.

Jordan asked the boy to stop, but the boy continued to throw mulch before his 13-year-old brother and punched him.

Although Jordan tried to walk away, he saw that the first boy was throwing mulch at J’Niaha now, and he fought with the first boy before the 13-year-old became involved as well and another boy shouted out, “You need to go back to the cotton farm.”

“My son, who understands the connotation of that statement because we’ve had those conversations before, was appalled, so he said ‘that’s racist.’ The child responded ‘why do you think it’s so racist? You do need to go back to the cotton farm.’ So at that point my son began to try to defend himself because the 13-year-old was pushing him down and calling him a baby,” Jackson said.

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During the incident, Jordan sustained a broken arm as well as post-concussion syndrome, but when Jackson spoke with the principal, the school said it was apologetic but not liable for the incident.

“At that point, we didn’t know the severity of Jordan’s injuries,” Jackson said. “We told the principal we understood that if that’s all they could legally do, then that was fine, but we said ‘because that’s all you can do, we feel that is not an appropriate response.’ Issuing an apology, we felt, wasn’t an appropriate consequence for the actions displayed.”

Jackson then called the sheriff’s office and was advised that she should give her medical expenses to the school, as they were in fact responsible. But the school again refuted responsibility.

“I am not trying to, at all, paint [school officials] as not wanting to help,” Jackson said. “I do want whatever is supposed to be done — done, and it not to be swept under the rug.”

The story has been picked up by several media outlets, including the Facebook page of journalist Shaun King, where it has already been shared over 4000 times. Jackson and her family are now meeting with attorneys to discuss options.