FLORIDA CITY, FLA. (WSVN) - - A South Florida mother is outraged after, she said, the parent of a student who was bullying her teenage son beat her son with a belt at school.
7News cameras captured Zendre Pollard and her 13-year-son as they left an urgent care facility, Thursday evening.
“He has a busted lip, and his arm is sore,” said Pollard.
The mother said her son was the victim of a lunchtime attack at Bethel Junior Academy in Florida City.
“Who hits a child like that? Who hits anybody like that?” she said. “You went straight for my son’s head, a child who has seizures.”
Pollard is still upset over what happened in the school cafeteria, Thursday afternoon. A surveillance camera recorded part of the incident.
“My heart dropped when I saw this video. My heart literally dropped seeing that video,” she said.
The concerned parent said the beating follows an incident involving her son and another student.
“[My son] told me he had an incident with another child that was bullying him, and he ended up defending himself,” she said.
The security footage shows a woman dressed in red or pink as she walked into the school cafeteria and approached a table. Moments later, she is seen appearing to hit someone out of the camera’s range with a belt.
Pollard said the woman was the parent of the student who was bullying her son.
“She’s got to take full responsibility, ’cause I was a phone call away. My son got bullied by the son, and now he got bullied by the mom as well,” said Pollard.
Her son said he is still shaken.
“I’m scared to go back to school because of what happened,” said the teen.
Florida City Police confirmed a parent went to the school and physically touched someone else’s child using a belt.
The teen said he raised his arm right in front of his face in an attempt to block the belt.
“My arm is hurting a little and my lips, but yeah, I was shocked when she just randomly came up and started hitting me with the belt,” he said.
Pollard said she knows the other parent.
“She has my number, call me. If there was an incident, call me, talk parent to parent. What she did was unacceptable,” she said.
The victim’s mother said she also wants to know how this happened in the first place.
“The school is supposed to protect my child, and they failed today,” she said.
The parent involved in the incident did not immediately respond to 7News’ request for comment.
Pollard said she wants to make sure this woman never does anything like this again.
“I’m pressing charges to the fullest. I’m not letting up, because I don’t want this to happen to anybody else’s child,” she said.
As of Thursday night, no one has been charged or arrested in connection to the incident.
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