Disappointment, frustration, and desperation are all emotions some parents who attended a Barbers Hill ISD school board meeting expressed Monday night after being told they couldn’t speak about bullying.
Among the most vocal, Sarina Sharp, the mother of 14-year-old Lillian Medina who took her life 10 days ago due to bullying.
Sharp and other parents said they just want to be heard and for those in power at Barbers Hill ISD to do something about what’s being considered a bullying crisis.
The parents told KPRC 2 that they were unable to speak about bullying at Monday’s meeting because it wasn’t on the agenda.
“I lost my daughter’s life,” Sharp said outside of the meeting.
Sharp is still overwhelmed with grief.
“There is no amount of money. There is nothing that anyone can do for me that can bring her back,” she said. “Nobody investigated when I said something. No one went to her aid. The last word she wrote in a mirror is maybe they’ll notice me now.”
The mother’s pain is now coupled with frustration.
“You don’t want to hear me talk because it’s not on the agenda?” Sharp shouted before leaving the meeting.
“I was trying to be polite. The policy is what it is,” responded Superintendent Dr. Greg Poole.
Some parents shouted, “let her speak.” But Poole denied their requests.
“No, no, this is not the way to conduct a meeting,” he said.
Some parents say the issue should’ve been the first item on the agenda.
“People are getting tortured on school buses and in classrooms. Who knows what’s going on in the bathrooms. It frustrates me for her, literally, her (Sharp’s) daughter just passed away,” said parent Kelly Swift.
“I noticed her every day but it wasn’t enough. It was not enough,” Sharp said.
One of the ideas parents wanted to pose was the district adopting a program called Time Travel Journeys, which is supposed to offer a creative approach to tackling mental health.
We’ve tried multiple times to get someone from Barbers Hill ISD to comment, even sending several questions about how they plan to address the issue, but have yet to receive a response.