On friday december 9, 2016 my husband and I started a paper petition in hopes to bring awareness and change to the bullying our child has received from the choir teacher at Hancock Middle School. We quickly learned that many other parents & children have experienced similar situations that have been ignored and swept under the rug by the administration including teachers, counselors, bus drivers , principals & superintendents. Our 6th grade child was told by the choir teacher in front of her class that her parents don't care about her or her education because she was unable to attend after school events, and then proceeded to talk about our child  to other classes. This occurred after I spoke to the teacher on the phone the previous day and explained why our child would not be able to attend. The following days this teacher preceeded  to tell our child that she has to change her schedule because she had to be there (as if she had control) , she threated our child with zeros for these events and contuined to shame her in front of her class about not being able to go.  Which caused her to be very anxious and ready to give up on chorus which she loves.  This was brought to our attention after the thursday night performsnce. First thing Friday morning we met with the principal and choir teacher to discuss what action would be taken for the teachers inappropriate behaviors only to be told that the teacher is retiring soon and the principal doesn't have the authority to discipine teachers but would pass the information to her boss (school board superitendent) we informed the teacher and principal that we would protest in front of the school until action was taken. We then went to the school board and was told the superintendent was not in but would be back after lunch. We preceeded to give full story to his secretary also telling her our plans to protest until action was taken. We returned back at school board office after 1 pm and told was the superintendent would not be in at all but will meet with us first thing Monday.  We then made signs and paper petition for our protest and stood outside the school during dismissal. We got several signatures and was told stories others have experienced. I then shared our story on Facebook and was amazed and overwhelmed by the response and stories from other parents & students that have experienced bullying by a teacher or other adults at Hancock Middle School. We would like this petition to be a way for all parties to come together and bring change that insures a safe place for all of our children to learn without bullying. Please sign our petition to change how bullying by a teacher is handled by Hancock County Schools.