Beaver County

Superintendent of local middle school meeting with parents to discuss alleged racist bullying

MONACA, Pa. — “I’m disgusted. I feel like a failure of a mother because I’m subjecting my child to this,” said Shenaya Baker.

Baker says some students at Central Valley Middle School make monkey noises at her 13-year-old son in the hallways and inside the classroom.

“The monkey noises and monkeys like that was so far ago. That was back in the ‘50s. What do these kids nowadays know about that, so I as a parent, feel as though this is a learned behavior,” said Baker.

Baker says that bullying has been going on for months, but her son finally told her because he couldn’t take it anymore. Last week, her son brought home a list that someone made. It named the black students as monkeys and a white student as the zookeeper.

“This was the school district that we decided to buy a home in and pay school taxes to for our child to come to this district. I’m at a loss for words. I honestly I can’t believe the ignorance that is going around,” said Baker.

Baker says she met with the school Superintendent Dr. Nicholas Perry Wednesday morning. Channel 11 talked to Dr. Perry over the phone earlier this week. Dr. Perry says the Central Valley School District doesn’t condone bullying or harassment of any kind. He also said he was meeting with all of the parents involved later this week.

“By the end of the meeting, I can say I do feel as though they felt more where we were coming from as parents that have to deal with this. I hope they take us serious, " said Baker.

Baker says after posting about what happened on social media, other parents have reached out, saying it’s happened to their children as well.

We reached out to the district again tonight and we haven’t heard back. But earlier this week the Dr. Perry told us he was meeting with all the parents involved to get to the bottom of what’s going on.