Criminal, Vigilante or Hero? Father Arrested for Defending His Daughter with Disabilities

posted on Sep 20 by Ken in the Advocacy, Cerebral Palsy, Disability Discrimination, Disability Law, Disability News, Health, Opinion and Discussion category

A Florida father is facing criminal charges for doing what he felt was right to protect his bullied daughter. He went through proper channels and felt that the administrators and officials did nothing to protect his child.

James Jones is the proud and highly protective father of his 11 year old daughter. His daughter has cerebral palsy and attends a public middle school to try to have a normal childhood.

We’re all familiar with schoolyard bullying, and if you have disabilities then it doesn’t make matters any better. If you’re not able to defend yourself because of your disabilities then it makes matters worse. That was the case with Mr Jones’s daughter.

Recently his daughter had to change to a different middle school. That was roughly one month prior to the videos that you’re about to watch. According to Mr Jones, his daughter was the victim of relentless bullying and torture at the hands of other students in her new school.

The older students on her school bus, with one of the primary antagonists being in 7th grade, would pinch her, hit her, call her names and pull her ears. This pushed his daughter to the point of being suicidal. Again, she is just 11 years old and tormented enough to contemplate suicide.

Imagine if you were in Mr Jones’s position. You would talk to your daughter daily to learn why she was upset and find that again and again, for a month, she was being harassed at the hands of young instigators who had no regard for human decency and tolerance. You would go to the school officials for them to stop the bullying and see no changes. You would watch helplessly as the bus driver ignored the actions of the students day after day after day.

This cycle happened for a month. The breaking point for Mr Jones was when one of the young thugs threw an open condom onto his daughter’s head and then laughed, along with the rest of bus, as she tried to pull it off. This is the raw video of the bully throwing the condom onto his daughter.

This cycle happened for a month. The breaking point for Mr Jones was when one of the young thugs threw an open condom onto his daughter’s head and then laughed, along with the rest of bus, as she tried to pull it off. This is the raw video of the bully throwing the condom onto his daughter.

Imagine your daughter with tears streaming down her face as she is ridiculed and humiliated in front of 30 of her peers. See what Mr Jones did the next day.

You saw in the video that Mr Jones takes full responsibility for his actions and will accept any consequences that will happen. He agrees that he shouldn’t have yelled and threatened his daughter’s bullies. As a parent, what would you have done?

The bus driver was powerless or simply chose to do nothing. The Greenwood Lakes school administrators were powerless or simply chose to do nothing. The Seminole County sheriff’s office now says that he should have contacted them, but in reality, when was the last time that a sheriff’s office acted on a bullying case, even with Florida’s Anti-Bullying Law?

Now Mr. Jones faces criminal charges for his actions including disorderly conduct and disturbing a school function. Is Mr Jones a criminal, a vigilante or a hero?