Sandy Rougely, the victim’s mother, claims the cause of the incident was racial bias.
Sandy Rougely’s daughter was on an overnight campout with her sixth-grade classmates April 28 when a rope swing got caught around her neck.
Authorities want to know how a 12-year-old girl got a severe rope burn, but the student and her mother believe they know the reason - the girl is black and attends a predominantly white private school (Live Oak Classical School, Waco, Texas). They believe she was the victim of a racially motivated attack, the apogee of months of bullying by her classmates.
The girl said she was helping classmates pull a rope to move the swing when she stopped to watch.
She said she felt nothing except the rope wrapping around her neck from behind and being pulled against her neck. She fell to the ground and was tugged backward.
None of her classmates moved to help her, so she removed the rope, looked back and saw three boys, all of them white, who she said had been picking on her.
Sandy Rougely is planning to file a lawsuit against Live Oak Classical School.
