MANCHESTER--Another mother has come forward about bullying at a local elementary school.
When Jessica Skowronski saw Candy Lopez on FOX 61 Tuesday night, she reached out to us immediately.
"I wanted to absolutely join that group she's starting about bullying," said Skowronski.
Both mothers have sons in the fourth grade at Washington Elementary School. They say they're fed up with bullying.
Lopez showed FOX 61 a list of the e-mails she received in support. "Everyone on the list is parents of a kid bullied. I've got a good five or six parents going through what I'm going through at the same school," she said. She also has gotten emails from parents in East Hartford and Waterbury.
Choked up, Skowronski shared her story about how her son is bullied:
His birthday just came and he had said, 'Mom, what can we do this year, because I can't have a birthday party because I have no friends?' So, it's been tough. He has tried to hurt himself because these kids make him feel like he should not be living. They take his food from him at lunch and call him too fat to eat, among various other things. He was kicked in the stomach, in the private area, down a flight of stairs, punched in the face, stabbed with a fork, a pen.
The mothers say administrators have met with them to discuss the problems, but that's it.
Skowronski doesn't think it's enough. "It doesn't seem like the kids who are doing it are being held accountable," she said.
Lopez says she's not wasting anytime. She has a 1-year-old son and wants him to enjoy school when the time comes.
"I'm going to strive for that goal that I can at least prevent future kids that go to school to not go through what my kids and others are going through as we speak," Lopez said.
Parents are tentatively planning to meet next Friday, March 18 to brainstorm how to tackle this problem. If you'd like to reach out to Lopez, you can message her on Facebook by clicking here. If you'd like more information about Manchester Public School's bullying policy, click here.
FOX 61 reached out to the school again on Wednesday, but all administrators would say is they take bullying accusations seriously.
