Mother says 2nd child is being bullied in DeKalb schools

The mother of an 11-year-old who hung himself after reportedly being bullied in a DeKalb County school says her daughter is now being targeted.

Jaheem Herrera, who attended Dunaire Elementary School in Stone Mountain, committed suicide last year.

Tuesday, the boy’s mother, Masika Bermudez, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her daughter is being bullied at Salem Middle School in Lithonia.

According to a statement the 12-year-old girl wrote to police, a fellow sixth grader has continued to harass the girl about her dead brother.

“[The boy] is talking about my dead brother who hanged himself. That’s why I was crying and raising my hand,” the girl wrote to her teacher.

Bermudez has filed a report with DeKalb County School Police and a complaint with the superintendent’s office. DeKalb school officials said the police report was not available Tuesday.

A schools spokesman said an investigation found the boy made offensive remarks and was suspended. Monday, the suspension was extended and the boy's mother withdrew him from school, the spokesman said.

“The DeKalb School District does not tolerate bullying. There are district supports in place to address bullying that include intervention, mediation, consequences for violations of the discipline code and prosecution of criminal acts,” deputy chief superintendent for school operations Robert Moseley said in a statement.

Jaheem hung himself inside his Stone Mountain home in April 2009. In August 2009, DeKalb school investigators said they could not attribute the boy’s death solely to a “simplistic case of bullying.” Investigators also cited serious domestic abuse of Jaheem’s mother by her longtime boyfriend.

Bermudez has denied those allegations and said the suicide was the result of anti-gay taunts by classmates.

Following the closing of the investigation, Bermudez moved her two other children to Florida to recover. In July, she moved back and enrolled her children again in DeKalb schools. However, she moved to a different neighborhood so her children would not attend the same schools.

But that’s wasn’t enough to protect her children, Bermudez said. The harassment started Oct. 6 when the boy began making comments in the school library.

“He was telling her that her brother is in hell and should have done that [hung himself] a long time ago,” the mother said. “He says he is a ghost whisperer.”

Bermudez’s daughter got emotional and tried to talk to her teacher. But the teacher, told her “questions later”, the girl’s statement reads. The girl then wrote the note to her teacher and got permission to go see the principal.

“I was surprised the school never called me. I found out from my daughter,” Bermudez said. “I went to the school and complained.”

After the complaints, the boy was sent to in-school suspension several days later, but the harassment didn’t stop, according to the statement. The girl said she was in her class when the boy left the in-school suspension room and confronted her. Again, he made comments about her dead brother.

“I started to scream and scream and cry for my brother,” the girl wrote to police. “To me, he had no remorce [sic].”