(Seguin) — A Seguin ISD family is frustrated and says it can no longer wait patiently for someone in the district to protect their kids from bullying at a local campus. That frustration led the family to publicly address Seguin ISD Board of Trustees members during its recent meeting.
Speaking before the trustees during the public-to-be-heard portion of the meeting were Jerry and Melissa Belmarez.
Although Melissa attempted to read her statement, she could not fight the tears and frustration, forcing her husband to take over her notes and share what his family has experienced for months.
In his statement to the board, Jerry spoke about the couple’s two boys, who have been the victims of relentless bullying since elementary school, which has become more prominent now that they are in middle school.
“Our boys are good respectful intelligent young men. It’s getting really hard as a parent to see your son’s spirit for life be broken due to the physical abuse, verbal abuse, and mental abuse. Every day they dread going to school. They are constantly looking over their shoulders wondering if they have to keep defending themselves whether it’s verbal or physical,” said Jerry.
The seriousness of this bullying is growing to the point where it impacts the two children well beyond the scope of their school life.
“The reason for this is because one of my sons is now in counseling every other week due to bullying and trauma. He has suicidal ideations with one attempt that we are aware of. We will not allow my sons to be a statistic of the 3,600 children that have already committed suicide under the age of 13 due to bullying in this country. Our kids are not fighters and are tired of the thought of having to fight to defend themselves either verbally or physical,” read Jerry. “All they want to do is go to school, get an education, be with their friends, and participate in sports and theater arts or any other school activities.”
Jerry says chaos and pressure continue to build inside their sons when they are left to feel that there is no support from the district.
“One of our boys, he loves theater arts so much. He is afraid that if he gets into a fight, he will lose his chances of being in the upcoming plays he is working so hard for. Sometimes, it affects him mentally and he will shut down,” said Jerry.
Having already gone through many avenues in the district, Jerry stated that he and his wife had no choice but to be before the trustees that night.
“If something happens to our children, we will hold the school district accountable because my son has cried out for help and so have, we. I hope that after hearing my voice, that you will talk it over and make the necessary changes that will help not only our children but other children and their families who have not voiced their concerns,” concluded Jerry.
In their comments, the couple stated they were not looking to speak down on the principal or staff but instead really call public attention to what is going on with their boys and other kids going through the same thing. The couple believes there needs to be a public approach to addressing bullying and a transparent understanding of how things are handled. This is necessary, they say, so that students and their families understand the legal and district wranglings behind it all.
“I see other parents on social media, but they always state, ‘nothing is getting done’ or ‘the school just sweeps it under the rug.’ We are different and will continue to be our children’s voices and will fight for them,” said Jerry.
Meanwhile, bullying affects not just Jerry and Melissa’s family, but also his younger brother Rene’s family. Rene and his wife Gabriela also spoke up and shared the experiences endured by their elementary school-age daughter. Rene tells the Seguin Daily News that the opportunity to speak was not planned. In fact, he and his wife were there because their daughter happened to be one of the students selected to read and share with trustees the learning that is going on in local classrooms.
“We are a Christian family raised to not fight back, but that doesn’t mean that the school board can let this continue just because we are good people and we were raised right. My daughter is being slapped. She has been kicked. She has been punched. She has been pushed. She has been bruised. She is an excellent student. She doesn’t want to attend school some days because of this, and it is a boy that is continuing to bully over and over. Nothing is being done. Things, like my brother said, are being pushed under the rug. That is not good in my eyes, and I know if this was a school board member’s – and I’m being honest, a school board member’s child or a teacher’s child, things would be handled differently. We need to bring this out. We need to bring this out yesterday and not wait until something happens. When something happens, it is too late,” stated Rene. “We don’t need to be on the news across the nation like other schools are.”
Due to board policy, trustees that evening were unable to respond to the families’ comments. The district cannot also respond specifically about the Belmarez family with the Seguin Daily News. District officials did, however, share their position when it comes to bullying and how it is handled.
“Anytime our campus administrators, teachers, central office administrators become aware of a bullying issue on campus whether it’s an outcry from a student or a student’s family member, we engage and we start a process to address it, to investigate it, look at it at all angles and do the best we can from a school’s standpoint working with those families, working with those students to make the situation go away. Unfortunately, bullying involves students and their choices and making bad choices in the way that they are treating other fellow students,” said Chief Communicaions Officers Sean Hoffmann.
The nature of bullying is no longer limited to the classroom or playground. Hoffmann says. Unfortunately, it has also evolved into a whole new level of threat and scope of inappropriate behavior.
“Bullying has no place in our classrooms. In recent years, cyberbullying has become more apparent, and we have tried to raise awareness with our school community regarding cyberbullying. Often times with students have available technology readily at hand, our parents do not know what their students are engaged with and engaged in online. So, that’s an awareness that we have tried to raise as well in working with parents and working with students on those expectations,” said Hoffmann. “Often times, there are issues outside the classroom, outside the school day where students may engage in behavior that leads to bullying and again, we don’t want it to come into our classrooms. We don’t want it happening at all,” said Hoffmann.
In response to the cases of bullying that are reported, Hoffmann says what the district needs is community support. He says, as the cliché goes, ‘it takes a village to raise a child.” He says that effort falls in line with ensuring that all students know what proper behavior is during the school day.
“It is not something that we can address alone. So, we do rely on our families. We do rely on our parents to instill those expectations, those values within our students to work with us so that those students everyday they go to school, they know what the expectation is and one of those expectations is to treat your fellow student, fellow teacher with respect,” said Hoffmann.
According to Jerry and Melissa that night, the district had already scheduled a meeting to discuss their allegations further. They say while the meeting should have happened a long time ago, they are still thankful for the opportunity to hopefully find some resolutions for their sons. They also stated that by speaking before trustees, they felt it was important to illustrate how parents shouldn’t give up on advocating for their children. Of course, they suggest going through the proper channels at the campus level first and hope that by publicly sharing their story, others will not have to get to the point of having to go before the school board. Instead, they hope their concerns are taken seriously from the very beginning. In addition, they encourage all families, no matter the school system, to follow those proper channels and demand change instead of posting on social media where more times than not, those voices go unheard.