Tacoma mom says 8th grade son was assaulted 4 times this school year

TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma mother says her son, an eighth-grader, has been assaulted four times this school year.

Most recently, Beth Golden said, a student threatened to bring a gun to Jason Lee Middle School and she doesn’t think the school is doing enough to keep her 14-year-old son, Jeremiah, safe.

Golden shared a picture from last October, which shows her son with a black eye. At the time, Golden rushed Jeremiah to the hospital and filed a police report.

Police confirm the report, but no arrest was made.

“I just don’t know what to do. I don’t like feeling like this,” Golden said. “I want to feel like my son can go to school and be safe and I just don’t feel that way right now.”

This past Friday, Golden said, her son was assaulted again. A different student punched him in the arm in the school cafeteria and threatened to bring a gun there to shoot him.

Golden said the school never notified her.

She told KIRO 7 she thinks the school was trying to hide it from her.

“I do, yes, because in the past my son has been bullied and they don’t want me to go in there and fight for my son and his rights,” Golden said.

A spokesman for the Tacoma School District said he's aware of the reports, but doesn't want to speak publicly since it might jeopardize her son's safety at school.

He did tell KIRO 7 "fighting in school is not unusual."

“It feels like we don’t matter, like we're not being heard,” Golden said. “And they just don’t care because it's a bully situation.”

Though she describes her son as a teddy bear at almost 6 feet tall and more than 200 pounds, Golden thinks that's why administrators are brushing off her concerns.

“I don’t think they are taking us, the victims, seriously,” Golden said.

Golden said her son's attackers have been suspended after each of the fights. According to her, administrators have admitted her son is not the aggressor, but he's defended himself in these fights and, as a result, has been suspended a couple of times as well.

Cox Media Group