JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Monday night, a mother who said her daughter is being bullied and the school's administration is doing nothing about it wants something to be done.
The woman's daughter, Alexis Lawson, is a freshman at Creekside High in St. Johns County, and said the bullying has been going on for a month and the school is sweeping her daughter's issue under the rug.
"It initially started with something that I thought was petty and tried to disregard it but it continued to escalate," Heather Lawson, Alexis' mother, said. "And then it just escalated into texts, threats, and we made the school aware but they didn't take too much heed into it until my daughter got assaulted."
Last week, students at Creekside High said the girl was sitting at lunch when one of her bullies came up from behind and pulled out the girl's hair and then scratched her face.
"The biggest thing happened on Thursday when a girl I didn't even know came up behind me and yanked my hair and pulled me backwards and scratched up my forehead while I was sitting at lunch. I just sat there and she walked away but she said as she yanked my hair back, "if you ever mess with my effing friends again I will cut you,"" Alexis Lawson said.
Another student said the girl has been bullied repeatedly and received threats from four or five girls over the past month.
"The other girls they were like, I'm going to find you. You better run. It's just threat after threat and they've even threatened my mom and said stuff. That's why it's like getting out of hand. I'll take the threats but don't go to threatening the people I love," Alexis Lawson said.
Heather Lawson, said that this is a major concern because this is the same high school where police arrested a senior after finding a loaded revolver in the school's parking lot.
"She's afraid. She is strong, but she's afraid to go to school. What's going to happen if this continues to escalate? At what point are they going to stop this? Is it going to be when she is shot? Does something have to happen to her? Because it's clearly evident that these girls are upset and are going to continue to try to carry out something," Lawson said.
Alexis and her mother said that they both tried addressing the school and the bullies about the issues but they said that it is still continuing. They've now filed a police report and hope to press charges.
"I have had depression since seventh grade and now this just isn't really helping, because I'm already hard on myself as it is," Alexis Lawson said.
The school's principal said that there is no issue here. Media relations officials with St. Johns County said that they cannot comment until they receive information from a police report.
"I feel like they protect the bullies more than the victims, and it's very sad to me as a parent," Heather Lawson said.
Lawson said she has filed a police report and police have turned the case over to the State Attorney's Office, while the family is preparing to retain their own attorney.