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Brighton High parent says she's tired of bullying

By Justin Hanson - bio | email | Twitter | Facebook

BRIGHTON, TN (WMC-TV) - A parent of a Brighton High School student says her daughter was punished for retaliating against a bully.  Now, that parent, Natalie Hodges, wants answers from school officials about why it got to this point. 

"If I could sell this house and move from Brighton, I would.  I hate I ever bought here," Hodges said.

She says the bulling, which has lasted about a year, started on the computer and continued at school.   Just last month, her daughter retaliated, fighting against the perpetrator, and got suspended for defending herself. 

"Mouthing, just calling names, just mental abuse more or less to the point over the summer she said she wanted to die," Hodges said.

Hodges doesn't condone fighting, but feels the school should have stepped in before the fight happened.

"All they keep saying is they know what's going on so they can watch her," she said. "What good is that?"

School officials can't comment specifically on this case, but say school administrators followed board policy in dealing with the bullying.  

The student handbook says in order to file a complaint, students should identity the victim, give the location date and time of the incident, a description of what happened, the identity of witnesses and any other available evidence. 

"We're not going to tolerate bullying at school, so we understand students cannot learn if they don't feel safe so safety is our number one concern," Tipton County Schools' Director of Instruction Dr. Buddy Bibb said.

And keeping her daughter safe is exactly what Natalie Hodges expects the school to do. 

School officials advise parents to watch what kids are doing on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.  If bullying is taking place on these sites and it has something to do with the school, contact school officials immediately.

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