DA Looking into Student Bullying Allegation

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office is investigating a bullying case stemming from several incidents between a group of students and a female at Winthrop Middle School last year and this year.

In September the victim’s mother filed a police report with Winthrop Police after she said her daughter was repeatedly bullied. The Winthrop Police turned the case over to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office for investigation.

“The question is not whether the girl was bullied. The question is whether or not the bullying rises to the level that can be tried criminally,” said D.A. spokesman Jake Wark. “We are working with Winthrop Police to make that determination.”

Wark added that there is a fine line between freedom of speech and harassment.

“Freedom of speech in school or on the Internet ends with threats and harassment and we take that very seriously,” said Wark.

For his part Superintendent of Schools John Macero said he was just made aware of the situation this school year and has called for an independent investigator to come in and get to the bottom of the accusations.

“There is a claim that this went on,” said Macero. “We are bringing in an independent investigator to look into the matter. Our job is to ensure the safety and well being of all students in Winthrop. In the meantime students need to realize that there is a consequence to bullying that we take very seriously.”

The victim’s mother claims the bullying started last school year and carried on throughout the summer and into this school year.

Despite the torment the victim’s mother said her daughter went to school everyday and endured unspeakable bullying at the hands of fellow classmates.

“They began writing stuff about her on the walls of the girl’s bathroom,” she said.

The words written on the walls were shocking according to the victim’s mother.

Some included derogatory terms for Hispanics and that the victim should be killed.

According to the victim’s mother each time her daughter would find a new piece of hateful graffiti on the walls and reported it the teachers and administrators would dismiss it as harmless pranks or typical preteen drama.

But the bullying did not stop at the end of the school day and spilled over onto social media like ask.fm.

There, racial slurs, threats and calls for her to kill herself were all posted. The mother produced screenshots of all the bullying that occurred and said she was heartbroken to learn how much her young daughter had to suffer.

All this has been turned over to authorities investigating the case.

“No child should have to go through this,” said the mother. “And the school should have called me but I knew nothing was going on.”

The mother also claims she was never informed and the documented was quietly filed away in a cabinet at the Middle School.