A Clay County mom is upset her daughter is being bullied both online and in school. She says the bullying has been going on for years at Lake Asbury Junior High School for several students.
Sabrina Rock says a post was written anonymously about her daughter on a page called "LAJH confessions."
Rock says that the account was taken down, but it’s not the only page, and the bullying hasn’t stopped.
“It’s absolutely horrible,” Rock said.
She is disgusted by what students are writing about teachers and their colleagues.
On the accounts, links take users to an anonymous messaging site and screenshots of the messages are posted on the Instagram pages.
She says a message was written about her daughter during Christmas break and she has been bullied in school since returning from the holiday break.
“She would tell me she would be walking down the hallway and people would cough and say obscene things to her, it would happen during class and even during lunch,” Rock said.
Rock says other parents have told her this has been going on for years. She met with the school staff on Wednesday to address it.
“I feel bad for my daughter because every day she comes back from school she’s crying, because she’s being harassed by these students and she’s not the only one,” Rock said.
Dr. Pamela Trotter, a psychology professor at the Florida State College of Jacksonville recommends parents report bullying and discuss the dangers of social media with their kids.
“Kids get to a point where they want to be private, handle things on their own, but we know middle schoolers aren’t quite equipped yet to handle these things on their own, so we really need to be in there with them,” Trotter said.
Rock says she wants to bring awareness to other parents and wants those behind the abuse to be held accountable.
“I feel like removing my daughter from the situation, it’s not going to stop the problem from the school,” she said.
Trotter recommends reporting abusive posts to the social media app itself and to local authorities. The Clay County School District says their police department and the Lake Asbury principal are investigating.