While Defending A Child Against Bullies, Sondra Scarber Is Assaulted By A Parent

I’ve posted a lot about bullying on this here bloggy space before; talked about kids who get bullied to death, and talked about parents who stand up to schools and administrators about their bullied kids. But this story, well, if you ever wonder where bullies come from, they’re born, and raised and taught, by their parents.

One day a lesbian couple, Sondra Scarber and Hillary Causey, decided to take Hillary’s son, Jaxon, to the playground at Seabourn Elementary in Mesquite, Texas. It wasn’t too long after they arrived, while they watched Jaxon play, they noticed some older kids pushing Jaxon around.

Sondra Scarber told the kids to leave him alone, saying he was just four-years-old. But then it turned ugly when the father of one of the bullies, realizing that Scarber and Causey were a couple, became enraged at Sondra Scarber.

“When he walked up thinking it was father and mom with the kid, he wasn’t as angry, but then when he figured out it was a female, he got like super pissed, and I don’t know why.”—Hillary Causey

Causey said the man punched and kicked Scarber repeatedly, hurling homophobic slurs at her while she lay on the ground, unconscious: “He was like, ‘Well if you think you’re a man… I’m going to treat you like a man.’ All she kept saying was, ‘I’m a female. I’m a female…' She never even had time to take her hands out of pockets to try and block herself.”

Mesquite police haven’t caught the man because, well, they say they aren’t convinced the attack meets the true qualifications of a hate crime, since the scuffle among children was the initial trigger. But, um, Mesquite police, if you missed the hate in there, how about finding the man and arresting him for assault? How does a man, does anyone, attack another human being and juts get away with it?

Please don’t tell me it’s because this was in Texas and that’s how y’all roll down there. Please don’t make me believe you have so little compassion for human life, and human suffering, that you’ll let a man get away with beating anyone in an unprovoked attack.

Scarber and Causey are convinced the attack was a hate crime, and are frustrated with the police department's lack of urgency. Scarber, like most victims of an assault, would like to see her attacker caught, but mostly she’s worried about how this will affect Jaxon, who is having troubling sleeping and is afraid to return to the park. 

Sondra Scarber, herself, now faces months of recovery after surgeons implanted a metal plate in her jaw, and she uses a syringe to squeeze pain medicine between her teeth. Swallowing anything solid—even something as small as a pill—is impossible, and speaking is very difficult. All because she wanted some kids to stop pushing a four-year-old around.

So, now we know where some bullies get their attitudes: from their parents. How can we expect the big kids not to push around the little kids, when their parents do the exact same thing?

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