I am a parent of three students at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, in Los Angeles, CA. Since my 5th grade child's arrival in kindergarten, in 2018, she has experienced bullying, ranging from being physically assaulted to having sexist slurs thrown at her by male classmates. I have relentlessly filled out complaint forms and the culture of bullying has persisted, with my youngest kindergarten student being punched in the stomach within the first week of school, and my 2nd grade student punched in the stomach by a classmate, last year.

On Friday, April 19, 2024,  I received a call from the school. Principal Chanelle Thomas, and school counselor, Ms. Mateos, informed me that they needed to have an assessment with my 5th grade student, stating that a friend of hers reported that she expressed a suicidal ideation. While questioning my daughter, in the assessment, she provided context, expressing that the comment she made, in a chatroom with schoolmates, was caused by a male classmate calling her a “hoe.” When she replied, “you have no hoes,” the male classmate threatened to kill himself. My daughter saying that she felt guilty and that she felt she had caused him to feel suicidal, retorted that if he did it, she would, too, and “knows where my mom’s gun is.” She explained that many of their peers loosely refer to suicide in chats and she'd joked in the past, using fake Halloween blood.

During the assessment, my daughter expressed that she did not have a plan or intention to commit suicide, but was responding to the classmate, in kind. A school “safety plan” was created, on the phone, itemizing who my daughter could contact if she felt unsafe. Near the end of the assessment, I asked Principal Thomas and Ms. Mateos to please talk to the student about calling my daughter a “hoe.” Principal Thomas immediately retorted that my daughter called him “fatherless.” I stated that I had no problem addressing any concerns regarding my daughter, but not as a rebuttal or deflection from the sexual epithet leveled at a 10-year-old. I also noted, “You didn’t even sit with what I said,” citing their lack of interest in curbing the vulgarity, which I expressed has a history in women’s fight for equality. Principal Thomas doubled down on her unsubstantiated “fatherless” accusation, telling me that fatherlessness in the Black community also has historical significance. 

I did not understand why my 10-year-old should have to answer for “fatherlessness in Black community” with her dignity and safety, on the principal’s watch, during an assessment, in which my daughter clearly stated that she was being bullied with epithets. Principal Thomas did not launch any investigation into the matter, nor follow up with me on my report to her, and Ms. Mateos, of the bullying.

Immediately, after Principal Thomas' dismissal of the student's bullying, he escalated, sending her a video, calling her a "f*cking n*gger" seven times, calling her a "n*gger b*tch", and a "n*gger" to her face, during a field trip. My daughter, a credentialed Student Leader, receiving honors and awards since her enrollment, and often chosen to perform and speak, both on and off campus, expressed that she was afraid to attend school. She'd been recently selected to deliver the keynote speech at the 5th grade culmination ceremony, a final tribute after a superb six years of excellence at the school. As recent as April 27, my two daughters were 3 of the students selected to perform Spoken Word Poetry in the district-wide LAUSD Arts Festival. My 5th grader has always represented her school with pride.

On May 6th, without the support of the principal, I came to my daughter's classroom to escort her safely from school. I addressed the student, telling him that I did not name her "b**ch" or "hoe" and that he is to stop calling her by hateful epithets.

Rather than launch an investigation into the escalated bullying, that I reported again, Principal Thomas, in a meeting immediately after I spoke to the student, demanded to know why my daughter didn't report the verbal abuse during the field trip, when the student called her "n*gger", several times. When I told her that it was because my daughter was scared, Thomas raised her hands and said, "That's on her," victim-blaming her. Principal Thomas then questioned the seating arrangement on the field trip, in this meeting that included my daughter's teacher Ms. Hernandez, prompting the teacher to join her in casting doubt on my daughter's report, asserting, "See, they weren't even seated together!" When I noted my daughter's achievements and accolades, Principal Thomas said, "So, you think she's better than everyone."

Principal Thomas, then, banned me from my daughter's campus, with a Disruptive Parent Letter and canceled my daughter's culmination speech, giving her keynote role to the bully. My daughter's teacher, Ms. Hernandez, told her that she no longer had a role in culmination "because of the situation." My daughter was not only distraught and weeping, but further bullied by the student, who was still seated near her in the classroom, and threw food at her in the cafeteria, following her teacher's announcement to the class that I was banned. Other students joined in on the bullying, in the following days, heckling my daughter for being emotional, following the open cancelation, which stigmatized her, shoving her, blocking her path, etc. My daughter, a disciplined Black belt martial artist, has carefully avoided confrontation with bullies, noting that her teacher employs a point system in the classroom, maintaining her full 1,000 points, because a high point score is required for 5th grade culmination. Only when we contacted Principal Thomas, via email, May 7th, did Principal Thomas finally investigate the abuse.

The principal's vindictive and retaliatory cancelation, following the bullying, imprinted the hateful epithets that my daughter was called, on her. She has become subdued, lethargic, and petrified of the principal and further bullying, as well as punishment if she defends herself or reports it. She deeply regrets coming forward about the bullying and expresses self-loathing. The Principal's coddling of her abuser, who still uses vulgar language at school, left her a parting message, at just 10 years old: that her hard-earned achievements can be stripped from her if she reports abuse, and given to her abuser. She no longer wants to attend her many extracurricular activities, including piano and martial arts; she quit her basketball practice. The school has become a lion's den that she must walk into, witnessing a friend of hers being the recent targets of relentless vicious physical assaults, including choking, etc.

I reached out to Principal Thomas’ supervisor, Tracy Murray, Regional Director for Region South at LAUSD, in an email May 9th. I informed her of my restriction from campus, as well as the fact that Principal Thomas did not investigate the bullying that I reported to her during the 4/19 assessment or the 5/6 meeting. During Murray's investigation into the culmination retraction, I was informed 5/14 that Ms. Tortola, the 5th grade teacher who selected my daughter and informed her of her keynote speech, denies having ever given her the role, a clear cover-up of the retaliation. Ms. Murray restored the culmination role and when Massiah inquired to Ms. Tortola about whether she'd gotten her role back, Tortola gaslighted her, telling her that she was never given the role, and that she must have been "absent" when the tryouts happened and her bully won the tryout. 

In a phone conference Monday, May 20, Ms. Murray informed us that she determined that Principal Thomas had adhered to district policy regarding my report of my daughter being abused by the student. When I asked what the district policy was, when a principal does not address bullying, Ms. Murray informed me that there are no reports of bullying prior to the May 7th email to Principal Thomas. Ms. Murray informed me that Principal Thomas denies that I ever reported any of the aforementioned, detailed conversations of abuse, on 4/19 and 5/6, that she enabled, excused, and doubted. 

Conspicuously, on May 21st, following her supervisor's May 20th conclusion that she adhered to district policy because there were no 4/19 or 5/6 reports of abuse, Principal Thomas produced an investigation report backdated vaguely "around or about 4/25" and concluding May 21st, that "did not meet the criteria of bullying". A second report conclusion has inconsistencies, as well. Despite multiple requests for Regional Director Ms. Murray to provide us with a document of her May 20th conclusion that Thomas adhered to policy, and that Thomas denies any reports of abuse prior to May 7, Murray has not provided one. Operations Coordinator Mira Pranata also investigated the matter, and did not answer our questions about the reports' inconsistencies, concluding, without providing any documented results of her investigation, that we must refer back to the principal with any further questions. Pranata has also become unresponsive in my request for documentation of her investigation results or her supervisor's information.

I continue to seek services and advocacy for my daughter, who is a different person than the jovial and jubilant spirit she was just a month ago. The bullying at King Elementary continues to fester.