BALTIMORE COUNTY — The Baltimore County Parent and Student Coalition held a rally Monday evening at Perry Hall High School, to call on the public school system to do more to prevent bullying.
"Bullying needs to come to a stop. I am holding every school administrator accountable for what goes on with these children in the schools," said Pastor Charles Neal.
Neal is a local pastor who says the youth violence that he preaches about hits close to home. His niece attends Perry Hall High School.
He says the high schooler constantly endures harassment from her classmates, which escalated to her getting jumped.
"You take a young lady who wants to go to school to achieve her education, only to be faced with bullies," said Neal.
"On that evening, it could have gone either way, my child could have been hurt, also the other child. And my concern is that neither child was protected in a way in which they should have been, that should have been de-escalated long before it got to that point," said Karen Bush, the grandmother of the BCPS student who got jumped.
Other parents had similar stories. Damon Stewart is a parent of a high schooler. He says he witnessed a few altercations on school grounds and he worries for his daughter's safety.
The father says if bullying isn't addressed, kids can bring the violence outside of the classroom, like the unfortunate incident of the 14-year-old Milford Mill student who was shot and killed after a football game.
RELATED: 'It never gets better': Police ID 14-year-old shot and killed after Milford Mill football game
"You need to have more people in the school, the understanding from a psychological aspect, because these kids are not just coming here, it starts at home, and I think it is a deep rooted issue with mental health, and I think we need to have more resources," said Stewart.
WMAR 2-News reached out to BCPS to hear what they’re doing to overcome this issue but were still waiting to hear back.
