An Arkansas mother is facing charges for allegedly ordering her children to attack a bully.
Officials say the woman’s child was bullied on the bus, and when they got off, the mother told her other children to fight the bully.
However, the mother says she did nothing wrong.
Temika McClure, 26, of Conway, faces seven charges – including one of second degree battery – based on the testimony of witnesses to the scene that unravelled on a public school bus on August 30.
According to the police, McClure climbed aboard the bus, confronted the 9-year-old boy in question, and then instructed her son, 7, and older daughter, 12, to “handle that s***.”
Video footage of the incident and the ensuing fight that broke out among the three children was captured by the bus driver’s surveillance camera but withheld by police due to the presence of minors.
Driver, Carl Renfro, claims to have asked McClure repeatedly to leave the vehicle while demanding the children stop fighting but when his pleas fell on deaf ears, he radioed for assistance.
As the children continued beating on the boy, an unidentified man got on the bus and finally managed to break up the violence.
Cops believe he may have been the children’s father as before he climbed aboard, McClure was shouting to the children to go and fetch their dad.
In interviews since making bond, McClure is denying the allegations that hold her responsible but, said Ms Woodruff who has viewed the footage, “what she says is just not true. Those kids knew what she meant when she said “handle that s***”. They didn’t ask questions and she didn’t stop it, she just watched while shouting things like “you don’t put your hands on a five-year-old.”
Police have confirmed that the youngest daughter did indeed have marks on her body concurrent with the story of the pencil stabbing, and that the boy who was attacked sustained minor injuries.
The school district, that is yet to determine punishment for the children, turned over evidence to the prosecutor who decided to file charges against their mother.
McClure confidently told Pix 11: ‘I’m not worried about it because I know we were not in the wrong.
“Because when it’s all said and done, why am I being charged for a kid fight?”
