By Ayesha Hana Shaji
Texas Metro News Team
A 13-year-old boy has been sentenced to 45 days of alternative school for a TikTok prank gone wrong at Cobb Middle School in Frisco ISD.
When Jordan Thomas did the “mumble prank,” he meant for it to be harmless. But things took a turn when his teacher misinterpreted the prank to be a request for oral sex, a claim he denies.
“I’m sorry if that’s what [the teacher] heard but that’s not what I said,” Thomas said.
Initially, Thomas served one day of in-school suspension and the case was closed by assistant principal Clay Grubb. However, it was reopened, without any further prompts, by assistant principal Reaunna Johnson, who levied another punishment toward Thomas-45 days of alternative school and a threat to file a sexual harassment police complaint.
When the decision was appealed, an in-house hearing was held on Feb. 24 with Johnson, their legal team, Thomas’ mother Carla Broom and their representation, George and Sarah Roland, defense attorneys from a Denton-based firm. Unfortunately, the school didn’t rescind their punishment.
Thomas will also have a seven-year record stating sexual harassment against a teacher, said Broom; who is again appealing the decision and awaiting a hearing date.
Rev. Dr. James Thomas, president of NAACP’s San Fernando Valley chapter, said he will fly to Texas and be present at the final appeal hearing to show his support for the student and the mother.
“This is not just about Jordan but about every student and making sure the district and the school [are] a safe environment,” he said. “To make that school a safe environment for Black folks and people of color makes it a safe environment for everybody.”
Broom has also found additional representation for the final appeal – education advocate Gerry Monroe of Monroe Consultation, LLC.
“[Johnson] has a history of suspending Black boys at a higher rate than any other ethnicity,” Monroe said. “She has a history of sending Black boys to alternative school.”
Thomas does not have anything on his disciplinary record prior to this issue. Moreover, there is no documentation, even in the teacher’s written statement, suggesting Thomas asked for oral sex, said Monroe.
“So I represent kids every single day and this is a joke. It’s got to be the biggest joke in the world,” he said.
According to Monroe, people are forgetting this is a 13-year-old and if anything this should be a learning curve and not an excuse to criminalize a child.
“We’ve gotten to the point in the United States of America, especially with children of color, that we don’t have a problem criminalizing them at the lowest level,” he said.
This will go on Thomas’ permanent record penalizing him and possibly keeping him from getting accepted into certain colleges and programs in the future, Monroe said.
“This is not what you need to do to a kid who doesn’t have a disciplinary record,” he said. “But you’re treating him as if he brought, you know, a pound of cocaine to school.
“We have to remember where we came from. In order to change racism on any level in this spectrum, there need to be some sit downs, there needs to be some communication.”
Broom said the whole situation has affected her son so much that she had to start taking him to counseling. She said it’s been very hard on her mentally and financially, especially being a single mother.
Monroe said the school and the parents should sit down together, talk about the situation and issue a punishment that is fair. The one-day in-school suspension, he believes, was a sufficient punishment but what they have now is unfair and extreme.
“And we need to understand that we’re all different but we are all stuck in this together,” Monroe continued. “And if we work together, we can solve anything.”
With a Black education advocate representing them along with Roland and the support of NAACP, Broom feels more confident about the situation, she said.
Ayesha Hana Shaji is a 2022 graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, where she was on The Shorthorn staff.
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