OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – The Farmington Public School District has recently fired the varsity basketball coach who has been charged with sexually assaulting two students, as well as three other coaches for failing to speak up.
That news has dredged up bad memories for the parent of one Farmington High School student, who is going to the school board to detail what happened to her son two years ago when he was a junior varsity football player.
A video recorded then by a fellow student shows her son being dragged on the ground by a group of boys on the varsity football team, with one student picking him up and thrusting into him as he makes comments about “wanting that booty.”
Her then 14-year-old son was humiliated, but didn’t tell his mom when he got home. The next day, the video got put on Snapchat and made its way around the school before a student reported it on Ok2Say.
The district immediately reported it to law enforcement, as it’s mandated to, but the boy’s mother tells us that what happened next still has her angry two years later.
“They call and say, well, he’s OK, and he’s with Detective Brown, and I’m just furious,” said the mother.
The mother headed to the high school, where she says the administration tried to minimize what the video showed.
“They say, ‘Oh, it just looks to me like they were just fooling around.’ No, that’s not fooling around. Thrusting is not fooling around,” the mother said.
She filed a police report and wanted to pursue assault charges when she said administrators tried to dissuade her.
“They were defending him, saying, ‘Well, he has a scholarship, and it’s his last year, and I’d be careful,’” the mother said. “The principal said, ‘Why can’t we just meet with the parents?’”
She wanted to push for charges, but her son was worried things would just get worse, and she felt zero support from the school, so she gave in -- but was promised there would be discipline. She says there was none.
The Farmington school district told Local 4 the student involved was disciplined, but couldn’t give more specific details.
Two years later, her son was still mortified by what happened and didn’t want to talk about it; she sent him to therapy to cope. Her message to the administration is simple.
“Their approach to handle this was just absolutely horrible,” the mother said.
In the last week, she’s approached the school board with her story and the video. They alerted the administration, who told Local 4 they were aware, but the mother wanted to see them launch an investigation.