Missouri Mom Defends Son Who Beat Up School Bully, Got Suspended

A Missouri mom is getting praise and support for a social media post in which she passionately defended her son who beat up the classmate who had been bullying him for years, after she claims school officials did nothing meaningful about it.

As Yahoo Lifestyle reports, Allison Arnall Davis’ Facebook post about the incident has gone viral on social media, racking up over 155,000 likes and 144,000 shares, as of this writing, about a week after it was first posted.

In her post, Davis said that her son, Drew, had been given five days of OSS (outside-of-school suspension) for fighting, after having had enough of the bullying that she said he’d endured for years. She started by writing that, ordinarily, a parent shouldn’t be praising her child for getting into fisticuffs and being disciplined at school.

“I know as a parent I’m suppose [sic] to be upset with him for resorting to violence or getting suspended, but I’m not. Not even a little bit,” she wrote.

Without naming names, Davis claimed that Drew’s bully and his “minions” had tormented her son for years. They would group around him and call him names, following him in the hallway while the name-calling and threatening continued. Then there were the threats on social media, text messaging, and voicemails.

Even other kids complained.

Still, Davis says, the school did nothing.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157740586851322&set=a.62472021321&type=3

Although Davis didn’t mention the school by name, the photograph attached to her Facebook post shows a young boy in front of the entrance to Republic High School. A school by that name, and with a front entrance that looks exactly like the one in the photo, can be found in the Missouri city of Republic, which is a few miles from Springfield.

Eventually, Drew stopped bothering to report the bullying and even stopped talking to adults at his school altogether.

When the bully stopped targeting just Drew and began threatening his younger brother and making fun of his father, Davis says, Drew had enough.

“Three punches and his bully screamed like a baby,” she wrote.

When the dust had settled, it was Drew who got punished, not his bully.

For whatever comfort it’s worth to the family, Davis and Drew are getting support from the wider internet community.

“Great work young man!!” one person wrote, praising Drew for using his fists and not a weapon, as some bullied kids have been known to do.

“Good job, Drew,” wrote another.

Whether or not fighting back against bullies is a good idea depends on who is answering the question. In almost any public school in the United States, fighting is a punishable offense that will result in — at the very least — detention, if not suspension or expulsion. As CNN reports, while many parents will say that fighting back against bullies can put an end to the torment, the focus should be on preventing bullying in the first place.