13-year-old SeMarion Humphrey went to a sleepover in Plano, Texas – but instead of late-night movies and popcorn, he was essentially tortured by his white classmates! They shot him with a BB gun, called him the N-word, and even made him drink their URINE.
And it was all caught on video.
Months later, Humphrey has gone to therapy and is hoping to start fresh at a new school. But he’s also retaliating. How?
The middle schooler started a non-profit called “SeMarion’s Voice,” aimed to be “a platform that gives other victims of bullying the courage to come forward.” He hopes more bullying victims will be able to confide in someone – like a trusted adult, not police who infiltrate schools to harass Black children.
Because the consequences of bullying can be deadly.
Victims of bullying are as much as nine times more likely to consider suicide, a rate that’s rising for Black children. For them, bullying often also means extreme racial violence, like what happened to Humphrey. Still, school administrators dismissively told his mother “boys will be boys.”
When it’s white children, it’s “boys will be boys.” But when it’s Black children, it’s the school-to-prison pipeline. Police and racist school administrations aren’t protecting or uplifting our children in school environments – what if some of that school police funding went to initiatives like Humphrey’s instead?