FARMINGTON, Mich. – A Metro Detroit mother is once again approaching the administration at Farmington High School in hopes of launching an investigation into what happened to her son two years ago.
The Farmington Public School District has been in the public eye recently due to the firing of a junior varsity basketball coach who is now charged with sexually assaulting two students, in addition to three other coaches who failed to speak up about it. The recent news from the district has dredged up bad memories for the mother of a Farmington High School student.
The mother, whose identity is not being shared, is going to the school board to explain what happened to her son two years ago when he was a junior varsity football player. Back then, a fellow student recorded a video of the boy getting dragged on the ground by another group of boys on the varsity football team. A varsity player could be seen picking the boy up and thrusting into him while making sexual comments.
The then-14-year-old boy was humiliated, and didn’t tell his mom when he got home. The video was put on Snapchat the next day, and circulated around the school before a student reported it on Ok2Say.
The district immediately reported the situation to law enforcement, as it’s mandated to. Still, 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.
Watch Mara’s report on this below.