PHOENIX (KNXV/CNN) – An Arizona father says his son’s school didn’t do enough to stop the second-grader from being bullied, so he called police to put a stop to it.
Father Rick Heinrich says his son, a second-grader at Sunset Elementary School in the Maryvale neighborhood of Phoenix is “friendly to everybody” – but not everyone is friendly in return.
"He’d be crying, not wanting to go back to school,” Heinrich said.
The father says his son was getting bullied, suffering both verbal and physical abuse at the hands of other students. He claims the behavior started while the boy was in kindergarten but got worse this year.
For Heinrich, everything came to a head during the most recent bullying incident on Valentine’s Day.
"The same kid socked him in the face, bent him over, kneed him in the stomach 5 to 7 times, dropped him to the floor and started putting the boots to him,” Heinrich said.
The father insists the school knew bullying was happening and didn’t do enough to protect his son or to stop the behavior, so he took matters into his own hands and called police on the accused 7-year-old bully.
"It's disheartening. You send your kid to school and you think they're going to be safe, and then they're not,” Heinrich said.
The school district says it takes a pro-active approach to bullying
“Our administrators acted quickly and disciplinary action was taken against another student on campus. At no time were any students in danger of harm,” said the district in a statement.
Officials say there is no bullying problem at the school, citing a parent survey from 2017 where parents overwhelmingly said the school was a safe place to learn.
The district also says it takes a number of steps to prevent bullying, such as teaching anti-bullying skills, bringing a specialist to work with kids on behavioral issues and encouraging good behavior.
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