Bully Page #3

- OK.

All right. Can you try to get along?

I think you guys might be

really good friends at some time.

We were.

And then he started bullying me.

Two people to a seat, dumbass.

Get out of the damn seat!

There's two people already here.

They punch me in the jaw...

strangle me.

They knock things

out of my hand...

take things from me...

sit on me.

They... push me so far that...

that I... I want to become the bully.

This is her comfort zone,

to herself.

She was a basketball player.

These are her trophies, her awards.

Got her names on them

and everything.

She's an honor student.

Yeah, she is an honor student.

She said when she finished school,

she said she wanted to go to the,

Navy, I think that's what she said.

Because she didn't

want to see me work so hard,

and she wanted to help me out.

She said, "Mama, I'm sorry."

She said, "I didn't mean

to put you through this."

She said, "I got tired

of them messing with me,

picking at me, day by day."

She said, "Mama, I wasn't

trying to hurt nobody.

I just wanted to scare them."

It all started back

when school first began,

and there was a lot of kids on the bus

saying things about me.

I tried my best to tell an adult,

but it got worse.

It was about 8:
30 to 8:45

when I got the call that morning.

I was shocked,

because I couldn't believe

that was my daughter.

And I asked the lady, I said,

"Are you sure you got my daughter?"

And she said, "Yeah."

I said, "Well, what is her name?"

She said, "Ja'Meya Jackson."

And it's like I just...

My heart just dropped.

'Cause I couldn't believe it.

I'm like, "She couldn't

have gotten my gun."

And she said, "She got your gun."

And I'm like,

"She didn't hurt anybody, did she?"

She said, "No,

she didn't hurt anybody."

It felt like everybody

just turned against me.

It was like nine of them,

nine or ten of them

calling me stupid and dumb,

and they started

throwing things at me.

And one of the guys

said something to me,

and he threatened me, talking

about what he was gonna do to me,

and he'll fight girls,

and everybody was laughing.

And I was telling him to be quiet,

and he kept talking,

and that's when I got up.

What?

Now come here, baby.

Come here, baby.

- Popped a gun on...

- What did you do?

- What are they doing?

- They're talking,

and I pulled a gun on them

showing up on my life now.

- Y'all talking?

- Sit down and leave her alone.

At the point to where

she takes the gun out,

that's 22 counts of kidnapping.

She has 22 counts

of attempted aggravated assault.

She's got 45 total

felony charges facing her.

Y'all quit talking to me!

Do not talk to me!

Calm down!

For me, there's nothing,

no amount of bullying or teasing

or picking on or whatever,

there's nothing unless

someone was actually

whipping on this girl every day,

unless someone was hitting

this young lady in the head

and being physically brutal to her,

there's nothing, to me,

that justifies

her taking the gun on that bus,

I don't care what it is.

I got it, I got it, I got it.

You've got it?

You have it?

The police, by the time

I had walked up off the bus,

he just grabbed my arms

and put the cuffs up on me...

and I walked to the car.

Even though things

came out as best

as they possibly could have,

if you added up all the years

that she could get,

it would be hundreds of years.

Yeah, that would devastate me.

I don't even know

if I could live behind it.

I really don't.

Our Father,

who art in Heaven...

we come to you right now gathered

with bowed down heads, Father God.

We ask you, right now, Father God,

in your dying son Jesus' name forever

to have mercy up on us.

I just never thought

I'd see this happening

to this family.

I hate that she was getting

bullied like that

and we couldn't do anything about it.

'Cause Ja'Meya don't mess with anybody.

It's going on in all schools,

it's happening to all kids,

and it's a problem

that needs to be stopped,

an end needs to be put to it now.

- That's right.

- Children hurt themselves

and hurt others all the time

because of bullying.

'Cause parents don't talk to their

children about not bullying.

- Right.

- Teachers don't do nothing

about kids bullying.

The board don't do nothing,

the principals don't do nothing,

nothing is done.

If I never

Sing another song

Down here on this earth

I'll be singing

With the angels in my home

In my new home

I'll be singing

I'll be singing

With the angels in my home

In my new home

Claps, screams and questions

crowded a Murray County

schoolroom this evening,

all revolving

around the recent death

of 17-year-old Tyler Long.

His parents say unpunished bullying

at the school

led him to take his own life.

There were numerous times

that I had to leave work

to go to the school

because of situations that

arose with Tyler being bullied.

Their attitude was, "We can't stop kids

from saying bad things.

We can't watch what every kid

does at every moment."

You don't want

to take care of the problem.

And if you did want to take care of it,

it would be took care of.

Bullying is a serious problem

in American schools.

- It would be...

- In this school.

- It would be unfair to say...

- Let's be honest, this school.

OK, it would be unfair to say

that we do not have

instances of bullying.

My baby was missing two

and three days of school a week

because there's

a gang of five boys

threatening to beat him up

at school every single day.

It was reported to everyone,

and nobody did nothing.

"Kids will be kids,

boys will be boys.

They're just cruel at this age."

And it was

a continuous fight with them.

The perception that the school

is a haven for bullies is just not true.

Do we have some bullying problems?

I'm sure we do.

All school systems do.

But is it a major overarching

concern in our high school?

No, it is not.

My name's Tina Long.

I'm Tyler's mother.

Um, I'm a nurse,

and I appreciate y'all being here.

I'm David Long.

I'm retired military

and work with the BoEU,

over on Fifth Avenue,

in extrusion

as a department manager.

And I, too, really

wanted to thank everybody

for coming out tonight

and being here.

We have invited either superintendent

or anyone from central office

or school board members

to participate.

So I want to, right up front,

if anyone's here

from Murray County schools,

we'd love to have you up here

to represent the school system.

OK, we did invite them.

I wish someone had come.

That's all you can do.

My name's Jeff Johnson,

and I run a business here,

I'm also a pastor at a local church.

Some of the church kids came to me

after Tyler had committed

this awful thing,

and they said that kids came

to school on the next school day

with ropes around their necks.

My question

to the school board would be,

why in God's name would some teacher,

some counselor,

somebody in enforcement

not do something?

Because that is very

derogatory to any kid.

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