Furious mom arrested after storming into son's elementary school and yelling at his 9-year-old classmates for bullying him
A furious South Carolina mother is currently facing charges for storming into her son's elementary school and confronting a group of nine-year-old kids whom she suspected of bullying her son.
The woman, 34-year-old Jamie Louise Rathburn, who is a mother-of-two, was arrested on May 20. Her arrest came just three days after the county sheriff's office had said that she entered the Greenbrier Elementary School during the morning drop off and proceeded to blast her son's classmates. According to the arrest report, surveillance footage showed Rathburn "lift her finger in a pointing manner and circle around as if making sure all the kids heard her and were listening."
Greenville News reported that a teacher shared with deputies that the mother had yelled at the children about "not knowing who was bullying her son but that she was going to find them and their moms." She also allegedly yelled abuses at a teacher before she stormed away. After the confrontation, Rathburn took to social media to share a video where she admitted that she had "snuck into the school and confronted kids that she estimated to be nine years old."
The video was later removed from Facebook. Rathburn was arrested and booked into the county jail on a charge of disturbing schools. She was released shortly after on personal recognizance and additionally, banned from school property. During an interview with Greenville News, Rathburn apologized for her outburst but said that she did not know what else to do.
She shared that her son had been subjected to bullying since last December and his classmates would tease him about his hair, call him names, and had once jerked him off the slide by his throat. Rathburn said that she had repeatedly told school administrators but no action was taken aside from separating him from other students so that other teachers could keep a watch over him.
Rathburn, who was also bullied in school, had also attempted suicide as a young teen and said that as her son's bullying continued, he started to suffer from nightmares and began to make excuses about not going to school. By May 17, Rathburn had reached her limit. "I am absolutely ashamed of myself for the actions of walking up into that school. You know, I owe the parents, the children and the staff an apology for that. Absolutely, it was wrong. But honestly, I don't know how I could have gotten my message across any other way."
In light of her arrest, she started a Facebook page titled 'Moms Over Bullies' and invited parents to share their own stories of how they deal/dealt with bullying. She is now considering homeschooling her children next year.