SEVERNA PARK, Md. — A viral video on TikTok shows a Severna Park High School student bullying a classmate who has special needs.
The student can be heard saying a racial slur, phrases demeaning to a person with special needs and even launching a physical threat at him.
Parents learned about the incident on Tuesday in a letter from the school.
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Then, the viral video drew more than 800,000 views on TikTok.
“It is a disturbing, disturbing thing to watch and certainly has provoked a visceral response on social media yesterday, but also at the school on Tuesday," said Bob Mosier, chief communications officer at Anne Arundel County School district.
The high school is focusing on ways to combat bullying.
Across the country, schools are seeing a rise in bullying according to the cyberbullying research center.
“You have to continue the conversations and as you’re moving forward in a journey, sometimes there are steps back and the goal is to keep moving forward and not let a single incident define your overall program," said Mosier.
"Certainly this is very disturbing, there’s no brushing this under the rug, there’s no not dealing with this. The appropriate consequences have been levied and that will continue to happen as this process continues," added Mosier.
According to the school, ounce students learned about the video they were outraged, the school district says they marched down to the principal's office.
“It is certainly reassuring that that many students went to the office and said hey look this happened you have to know about this and it happened very quickly almost immediately, so from that point, the message of see something say something and the message of let’s do something about something that’s just not okay is clearly there," said Mosier.
The school has identified the student and has taken appropriate action.
According to the Anne Arundel County School handbook, bullying results in a suspension.
