Mother sues Mount Airy City Schools following alleged bullying and sexual assault of 12-year-old son

A mother is suing Mount Airy City Schools over alleged bullying and sexual assault of her 12-year-old son.

The lawsuit outlines multiple incidents of the plaintiff, a sixth grader at Mount Airy Middle School, being bullied leading up to a school field trip in 2022. 

The student’s mother, who filed the lawsuit last week, claims she raised concerns about her son’s safety on the trip, but was repeatedly told that school officials would be supervising him. 

According to the lawsuit, that’s not what happened. The plaintiff’s fellow students allegedly beat him with a belt, dragged him across the floor, and attempted to penetrate his rectum with an electric toothbrush in their shared hotel room. The suit also alleges that a chaperone witnessed some of this behavior and didn’t intervene. 

“Not only did these students repeatedly brutalize a 12-year-old boy, but one of the chaperones actually saw it happening and did nothing to stop it,” said one of the lawyers representing the mother and son, Chance Lynch of Lynch Law, PLLC, in a press release. “They failed this young man in the worst way imaginable and they need to be held accountable. Until they are, none of our children are safe.”

In an email to WFDD, a spokesperson for Mount Airy City Schools stated that the district takes reports of bullying seriously. 

"Upon learning of the allegation in 2022, we immediately launched a thorough investigation in accordance with our district policies," said the district's Executive Officer of Communications and Technology Carrie Venable. "Our priority is to gather all relevant information and to ensure that every student's voice is heard."

The lawsuit states that the plaintiff has since withdrawn from school, and is undergoing mental health counseling to cope with the traumatic event.

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.