A South Carolina mother who claimed her cries for help went unanswered, said she reached her boiling point when she confronted a group of elementary school kids over bullying. She was arrested three days later.
CBS 7 reports that Jamie Rathburn kept a log of the many times her son, Blake, was bullied at Greenbrier Elementary School in Greenbriar. The woman said she complained to the school district and teachers, but when she wasn’t satisfied with their response, she took matters into her own hands.
According to the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, Rathburn is accused walking into the school, bypassing the sign-in sheet and heading straight toward her son’s third grade classroom in May. She reportedly circled the bullies while screaming so loudly at them that a teacher eventually pulled her inside a classroom to calm her down. The teacher said she cursed him out before leaving.
Authorities found out about the incident after Rathburn took to Facebook and posted a video that lasted a little over six minutes. In the video, she explained that her son had been bullied all year long and the school did nothing to prevent it. Police charged Rathburn with “interfering, disrupting, or disturbing schools.”
Rathburn was also caught on security footage at the school, according to police. Although there was no audio, officers said it was apparent she was talking to a group of children lined up in the hallway waiting for class. The video showed her “lift her finger in a pointing manner and circle around as if making sure all the kids heard her and were listening,” according to Greenville News.
Teachers who witnessed the event told police that Rathburn said didn’t know who was bullying her son but she planned to find out and tell their moms.
“I am absolutely ashamed of myself for the actions of walking up into that school,” Rathburn later told Greenville News. “You know, I owe the parents, the children and the staff an apology for that. Absolutely, it was wrong. But honestly, I don’t know how I could have gotten my message across any other way.”
Rathburn deleted her video from Facebook and was banned from entering the school. The once “class mom” who helped out at the school is now banned from classroom activities.
“I can’t go eat lunch with my children,” she said. “I can’t watch them on field day. As class mom, that’s devastating.”
Reports of Bullying Stem Back to December
Rathburn apparently sent an email to her son’s teacher in December 2018, claiming that another child pulled her son’s hair.
“Picking becomes bullying really quickly nowadays, and I’ve taught my kids not to tolerate it, so before something transpires could you address it,” the email read, according to Greenville News.
Rathburn said despite the email, the bullying continued. Children allegedly called Blake names, made faces at him, hit him with a computer, and pulled him off of a slide by his throat. Rathburn said that after one child made faces at the her son, his teacher told him to “ignore him, stay away and be the bigger man, and I think it will stop.”
Rathburn contacted school administrators, even threatening to report them if something wasn’t done. Administrators told the outlet that they could not comment on the case at this time.
Rathburn said the incidents left her son, who “wears his heart on his sleeve,” with bouts of depression. As someone bullied herself in school, Rathburn said she finally reached her breaking point, although she does regret taking the matter into her own hands.
“I was becoming a statistic because nobody listened to me. I can’t let that happen to my child. I don’t know when I should be concerned about these issues, but I feel like it’s now because in five years it’s too late.”
[Feature Photo: Jamie Rathburn/Police Handout]
