A DeKalb County parent is accusing students of slapping and stomping her son at a football camp.
The mother, Betty Bowden, told Channel 2 Action News that her son was among teenagers bullied by older students at a recent camp. She filed a police report about slapping and stomping, wsbtv.com reported Monday. She told the TV station that she didn't believe the older boys wanted to hurt her son, but said she planned to move him to a private school.
DeKalb County Deputy Chief Superintendent Bob Moseley told Channel 2 that two players from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. High School were suspended and the district was looking into other incidents.
The news station reported that it obtained a police report about a separate incident involving Lithonia High School students at a camp on the campus of North Georgia College. Mosley said a prevention and intervention team at Lithonia High already had talked with players about hazing and bullying.
Bullying has been a sensitive topic in DeKalb since Jaheem Herrera, 11, committed suicide there last year. His parents said he hanged himself after facing anti-gay taunts from classmates.
As a result of the incident, the Legislature passed an anti-bullying bill this year and Gov. Sonny Perdue signed it into law.
The law sets a January deadline for the state Department of Education to develop an anti-bullying policy that can be a model for local school systems. That policy must include age-appropriate consequences for bullying from kindergarten through 12th grade. The law also requires school officials to notify parents when their child is involved as either the victim or instigator of bullying.
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