Indiana: mother sends son school with stun gun as defence against bullies

By Katrina Jones May 8th, 2012 ( No Comment )

Indiana: A mother of a gay son from Indiana sent him to school with a stun gun in order to deal with those who had been bullying him there. She said she would do it again if measures not taken.

Chelisa Grimes did so after the administrators apparently had not done enough to protect her 17-year-old son, Darnell Young, who is now facing expulsion from school.

“I do not promote violence—not at all—but what is a parent to do when she has done everything that she felt she was supposed to do … at the school?” she told CNN. “I did feel like there was nothing else left for me to do, but protect my child.”

Grimes claimed that her son was taunted and bullied for months at Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis which is why she gave him a stun gun as a tool of defence against the culprits.

“I brought the stun gun ‘cause I wasn’t safe,” the son said.

Young said he even used the gun after six students surrounded him on April 16, called him names and bullied him.

“I got kicked out of school for me bringing the weapon to school, but I honestly don’t think that that was fair,” Young said. “I didn’t use it on nobody. … All I did was raise it up in the air and went back to my class.”

He was arrested and taken away handcuffed after the incident. Investigation is underway by the school administration to identify the student who allegedly surrounded Young, but nobody has been identified yet.

However, the school’s principal, Larry Yarrell pointed out the way Young wear attractive dress and female accessories.

“If you wear female apparel, then kids are kids and they’re going to say whatever it is that they want to say,” Yarrell told The Star. “Because you want to be different and because you choose to wear female apparel, it may happen. In the idealistic society, it shouldn’t matter. People should be able to wear what they want to wear.”

Grimes was of the view that enough measures were not taken at the school to protect all students.

“I think that the self-protection device is what’s making the news, but the big picture is that my child is not the only one who does not feel safe at our school,” she said.

Young said rumours around campus suggested he was “doing nasty stuff” with teachers and added that this had a very bad effect on them.

“I was at my wit’s end. I didn’t know what to do and I thought about suicide,” Young said. “I hate saying that word because God blessed me with this life. I love life. I love my education. I would never … but this bullying got so bad that I thought about that.”