A mother in Springfield, Mo., is telling a local news organization that her son is being racially bullied at school.
After seeing a photo on social media of her son depicted as a slave she does not believe the school district has issued a harsh enough punishment to the bully who posted the offensive image.
“I’m not shocked,” mom Kierra Nabors told KY3. “I’m disgusted, but I’m not shocked.”
Nabors was referring to a string of racist bullying incidents affecting her son, an 8th-grade student at Cherokee Middle School in Springfield. In one photoshopped image posted to social media, the principal appears to be branding a slave, and the face of her son Isaiah is inserted into the image, KY3 reports. The photo shared via Instagram is captioned, “slave branding.”
The school is not permitted to publicly share how the student was punished, but Nabors does not believe it met the severity of the crime.
“He wasn’t expelled,” Nabors told the news organization. “Isaiah still sees him at school.”
The mother said she feels her son is going to school in a “hostile environment.”
Springfield Public Schools told KY3 that the incident is being handled according to district policy.
“The administrator would meet with the student and parent or guardian and deal with that situation and establish discipline, which would include up to three days of out of school suspension, according to our handbook,” district communications officer Stephen Hall told KY3.