Mesa, Arizona – A mother got fed up with her son being bullied by a boy at the Academy with Community Partners and did something kinda understandable but undoubtedly stupid. The school had failed to do anything about the repeated reports of bullying so on Thursday, Tracy Branham took matters into her own hands. She arrived at the school to pick up some papers for her son when she saw the bully and his two brothers standing out front. Frustrated from a meeting with school officials the previous day about the bullying in which she described a staff that “didn’t seem to care” Branham began cursing at the boy and demanding he apologize to her son. The boy allegedly cussed her out and the trio headed into the administrative office. Branham followed. Once inside the office, she continued her rant against the three boys as well as the staff. Charlotte Hooper, the three boys mother, arrived at the school a short time later and Branham started cursing at her as well.
Branham ended up slapping Hooper across the back of the head as she turned to walk away. At this point the school’s principal, Toefila Angst, tried to intervene but police say Branham pushed her into a door. Branham was then physically removed from the building. When staff escorted Hooper outside, they overheard Branham threaten to get a gun and shoot her. Police then arrested Branham and charged her with assault, aggravated assault, disruption of an education institution and the solid fact that her son will not be getting laid this year, if ever. Angst has declined to comment.
I feel for the woman. How powerless she feels. Especially since the student doing the bullying is featured in a YouTube video taken last year by a student at Red Mountain High School. It shows the bully repeatedly punching a student in the head until that student stops moving. The student being assaulted happens to be Branham’s nephew.
I was in a similar situation with my kid when he was getting singled out by another student. I tried and tried to get the school administration to do something to stop it. But every day my kid would come home upset over something this other kid had done to him. So finally having enough, I went to the school and confronted this piece of shit myself. After stopping the bully in the hallway and told her “I don’t give a shit if you are 4-years-old, if you kiss my kid again without his permission I will shove my foot up your fucking ass and kill your entire family!” Of course, upon some reflection and some court appointed counseling, I realize that sometimes physical altercations are not the best approach – no matter how frustrated you are.
Tags: Assault, Bullying, student, threat
