What started as a mother claiming she was standing up for her son who was getting bullied has escalated into a federal lawsuit. The mother claims her civil rights were violated by Gateway School District.
Nearly two years ago, Tammy Aikens walked onto a Gateway school bus to confront her 5-year-old son’s bully. The district said she never had permission to get on the bus, and she was banned from school activities.
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Aikens shared her story with Channel 11 in April 2018, and afterward, she claimed in court paperwork, that the district called the agency she was working through to say she was no longer permitted to work as a teacher’s aide at Gateway.
The lawsuit states that the “defendant’s action was in direct response to Plaintiff telling her story to the media and had a chilling effect on Plaintiff’s speech.” The suit was filed against Gateway Superintendent William Short, and claimed he did not act when told about Aiken’s son being bullied nor did he discipline any of the students alleged to be involved.
Attorneys for the school district pushed back and said in part “... district personnel thoroughly investigated Plaintiff’s allegations of bullying of her children and ultimately determined no such bullying occurred.”
A federal judge assigned a mediator to resolve the issues.
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