A pair of bullies targeted a 10-year-old Iowa girl on a school bus — holding her on the floor and scrawling the word “loser” across her forehead, her family said.
Raeann Long remains “very hurt and very sad” more than a week after she was held down by a girl as another drew on her face — which included putting a mustache on her upper lip — during their ride home on the bus from Titan Hill Intermediate School in Council Bluffs on Jan. 31, said her grandmother Debra Dabney.
“I know this is still bothering her,” Dabney told The Post. “And my son is very hurt and just very angered over it. He still can’t believe that the bus attendant would let this go on.”
Dabney said the attack “just happened out of the clear blue” and was particularly troubling because bullying had never previously been an issue for the Pacific Junction girl who enjoys cheerleading, gymnastics and watching her father, Zach, play semi-professional football.
“She’s a very happy-go-lucky girl, she makes no enemies, she’s in a lot of activities,” Debra Dabney said. “She’s just a very likeable little girl. I’m still in shock over this because I can’t believe anyone would do this to her.”
Kent Stopak, the school’s principal, said he met with Raeann and her family one day after the incident.
“I conducted an investigation into the incident and have taken steps to discipline those involved,” Stopak told The Post in a statement. “The Lewis Central Community School district does not tolerate this type of behavior. I will continue to work with our student body to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect.”
Stopak declined to elaborate on what immediately preceded the alleged attack or what punishment the two students received. Stopak said reports that the two students were banned from riding the bus for one day after the incident were inaccurate. The bus was not equipped with a surveillance system, so video of the incident was not available.
A woman who answered the phone in Stopak’s office early Wednesday said she was unaware of disciplinary measures doled out to the students, saying she “missed all the fun surrounding this incident.”
Sgt. Mark Stewart of the Council Bluffs Police Department confirmed to The Post that an investigation is ongoing and said if charges are filed in connection with the incident, they will be sent to juvenile court.
Meanwhile, Debra Dabney said her granddaughter, who sometimes “hides her feelings,” will be OK, but the grandmother wants to see bullying, particularly in schools, stop immediately.
“I’ve witnessed it my entire life — raising four of my grandkids — and I went through a lot of bullying myself,” she told The Post. “This has got to come to a halt.”
Zach Dabney, Raeann’s father, could not be reached for comment early Wednesday. He told the Des Moines Register that he and his wife, Mieka, plan to file a civil lawsuit against the school — which is located just outside Omaha, Nebraska — and the school bus company.
“These girls asked her to sit by them, and my daughter, she’s a people person … so she went over there and thought everything was going to be OK,” he told the newspaper.
Zach Dabney said he’s not satisfied with the response by school officials and that this isn’t the first time one of his four children have experienced what he believes to be racially motivated bullying in Council Bluffs, a town of roughly 60,000 that’s more than 90 percent white, according to Census Bureau data.
Dabney’s four children are mixed-race, with African-American and Native American ancestry, he told the paper. Dabney said his 11-year-old son told him earlier this year that he was called a racial slur by some classmates, but he doesn’t blame his children’s classmates because their behavior is learned from their parents.
“We’re going to try to bring this to the light,” Dabney told the newspaper. “A lot of parents are scared to pursue it the way we’re going. … But it’s not fair for kids to go to school and be scared of being there.”