A Southern California mother is leading the charge to expel a student she says broke at her black daughter with a jump rope and called her a “slave.”
Jasmine Harris says her 10-year-old daughter was recently the target of an insulting racist remark while having lunch with her friends.
According to Harris, at her child’s school, a young white boy hit her daughter – Paris Barnes – with a skipping rope and told her to “go back to work, slave.”
The mother is now demonstrating outside Santiago Elementary School in Santa Ana to raise awareness and try to get school officials to take action.
“They’re sweeping it under the rug,” Harris said, speaking to ABC 7 Los Angeles about the disturbing incident.
Jasmine Harris’ says her 10-year-old daughter was recently the target of an offensive, racially charged comment while having lunch with her friends
According to Harris, at her child’s school, a young white boy hit her daughter – Paris Barnes – with a skipping rope and told her to “go back to work, slave”
Harris told the Southern California TV station that she is almost ready to take her daughter out of the precinct, but is hoping for repercussions for the boy involved.
“I want the little boy expelled from school. I want them to do something about this,” Harris said.
She said she is yet to find out if the child was even punished for the incident, which she says took place on March 1.
The mother and a group of other parents held a protest outside on Monday, demanding answers from Santiago Elementary and Santa Ana Unified School District officials.
Jessica Garcia and Maria Gomez – both parents of students in the district – expressed their displeasure with the school’s handling of bullying of any kind.
“I don’t think it’s fair that so many parents are going through the same thing,” Garcia said.
“They see so many kids involved and nothing being done about it,” she continued.
Gomez agreed with Garcia and Harris, telling the TV station, “There’s clearly a (systemic) problem that nobody’s paying attention to.”
Barnes also spoke to ABC 7 and said she is still reeling from the incident.
“It was very disrespectful and I felt really hurt inside,” the young girl said.
Harris says that because of the inadequate response from the district and school administrators, she has now gone to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
She hopes the young boy will be charged with a hate crime and attempted assault against a minor, she said.
DailyMail.com reached out to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for comment, but did not receive a response at time of publication.
The mother and a group of other parents held a protest outside on Monday, demanding answers from Santiago Elementary and Santa Ana Unified School District officials.
Jessica Garcia and Maria Gomez – both parents of students in the district – expressed their displeasure with the school’s handling of bullying of any kind.
“I want the little boy expelled from school. I want them to do something about this,” Harris said
“There is clearly a (systemic) problem that nobody is paying attention to,” said Maria Gomez
“My heart goes out to Paris, to the young lady, and I just want to make sure she gets the support the student needs,” Superintendent Jerry Almendarez said.
This is Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. Harris said she went to the district attorney’s office and hopes charges will be filed against the boy
In a statement to ABC 7, superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District Jerry Almendarez said he and his staff are working on a resolution and a formal investigation is underway.
“My heart goes out to Paris, to the young lady, and I want to make sure she gets the support the student needs, but also make sure that we also provide the support so that this doesn’t happen again,” says Almendarez. said.
DailyMail.com reached out to Almendarez for additional comment, but did not receive a response at time of publication.
Now, Barnes says she still feels uncomfortable going back to school.
“I’m not really comfortable going back to school because I don’t know if he’s going to do it again because nobody really said if he was going to be in that much trouble,” Barnes said.