Community Rallies Around 6-Year-Old CMS Student After Reports Of Bullying

CHARLOTTE — A 6-year-old girl says she’s being bullied in school.  Joeyanna Medley is a kindergartner at Eastover Elementary.  She told her mom a boy repeatedly hits her, talks about her hair, and a few times she says the attacks got worse.

“I was sitting down eating my snack, and then he pulled up my skirt and pulled it back down,” says Joeyanna Medley.  She says it made her feel sad.  Her mother, Brittani Barnett was furious.

“Experiencing bullying myself when I was younger, and child molestation, this is not something that I’m going to stand for.  It makes me very emotional and upset that nobody is taking this seriously,” says Barnett.

She says she went to the school Thursday, but felt she was getting the run around by school leaders.  So, she took to social media, and the community offered their support.  Friday morning Barnett says the principal reached out to her.

“They were actually able to see me this morning thanks to TruBlue,” Barnett says.

Community Advocate Will Adams with Team TruBlue and others showed up at Eastover Elementary Friday and walked Joeyanna safely into school.

“We absolutely positively have to get involved with our kids when we speak of village, we’re speaking of everyone, we all have to get involved with what’s going on with CMS,” says Adams.

CMS released this statement:

“Eastover Elementary is aware of the incident. A Title IX investigation is underway.  Administrators are also putting interventions in place in the classroom as well to keep the students separated and not seated at the same table in the Kindergarten class.”

CMS encourages anyone to report bullying directly to the school.  You can call 980-343-2748 or email the district at preventbullying@cms.k12.nc.us.