A 5th grade girl was with her friends on the blacktop of Phil Swing School when a boy ran toward her and spanked her backside, then ran toward a group of laughing friends, a mother claims.
It happened four years ago, but her mother remembers it like it was yesterday.
The mom, who asked not to be identified to spare her daughter from embarrassment, said when she went to pick her daughter up after school she was told to go to the principal's office. That's where she found her daughter, in tears.
The girl told her mom about what happened on the playground, and the mother said she asked the principal if the boy would be disciplined.
“She told me she was going to investigate," the mother recalled, and then the principal said something that angered her. "She says that it was not a sexual harassment that it was an accident.”
The mom didn't buy it. The next day after school she said she found her daughter in the principal's office again. This time the principal was threatening to suspend her for confronting the boy who spanked her the day before. "She got called a bully for trying to speak up for herself," the mother said.
“I got mad. I really got mad because she wasn’t doing nothing about it, and I expect for my daughter to be safe at school.”
The mom told Team 10 she threatened to call police or the school district to report her concerns. That was when she claims the principal dropped the suspension.
Her daughter, who was already shy and insular, kept to herself for several years after that.
The mother contacted Team 10 after seeing the story of Anyssa Sanchez, who was a 6th grader when a boy touched her breast after she says she warned him not to. She kneed him in the groin.
RELATED | Brawley teen fighting to stop 'games' involving sexual assault at elementary school
Both kids were suspended, but Sanchez and her mother fought the suspension, calling it retaliatory and saying Sanchez had the right to defend herself since the school didn't.
A federal judge ruled Sanchez didn't have a strong enough case. Now she's appealing that decision.
“When I saw your report I was like 'wow, again they’re not doing nothing.' And it's really, really frustrating to see that not even in court, they’re not taking this seriously," said the unnamed mom.
She's one of a handful of parents who contacted Team 10 since the story aired to say the Brawley Elementary School District has a systemic problem that needs to be addressed.
Some parents contacted us to say both the principal and the superintendent who were running things when Sanchez's incident happened have left the district.
The new superintendent told Team 10 inappropriate conduct is not tolerated or condoned.
No date has been set for Sanchez's appeal.
