LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA — Laguna Niguel Hills Middle School parents were up in arms after a mother of one of the students confronted a classroom where she claims boys “bullied her daughter” using social media. Now, social media backlash has turned the spotlight away from the bullying of her child and onto mother Christian Tinsley.
Tinsley is caught on camera repeatedly asking kids to “send their mom” to talk to her and handing out printed “butt-kicking tickets.” Questions have arisen on how she entered the locked school and whether she had permission to address the class.
In the video, the 8th-grade teacher sits by as the mother was caught on camera telling the boys, “she’s a girl. Y’all are boys, okay? If y’ all bully my daughter, look at her the wrong way…send your mom to me. Sisters, aunts, anybody over 18,”, following up with expletives in the video declaring she would fight family members of the students. “Leave my daughter alone, and I’m not gonna say it again.”
In response to the incident, Laguna Niguel Hills Middle School Principal released a letter to families, expressing the school’s reaction to the event.
“Once the teacher identified that the individual was not an employee, the teacher contacted the front office to ask for assistance,” Principal Tim Reece said in the e-mail.
The assistant principal escorted the parent from the classroom to the front office, he explained.
As of this report, whether Tinsley checked in with the desk before entering the second-period 8th-grade class, or if the teacher knew what she was going to say to the students remains under investigation by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Laguna Niguel Middle School, and the Capistrano Unified School District.
“When a parent or student shares concerns about bullying or harassment with administration, teachers, or staff, the alleged bullying is immediately investigated at the school site, and both parents are contacted,” he said. As for how the mother got onto campus, questions remain. According to Reece, “every visitor must sign in at the front office. There are no exceptions.”
The incident was recorded on a cellphone by a student and has since gone viral. Online, the court of public opinion continues to debate the issue.
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Was the mother wrong to burst into the classroom and explain her frustration in such a manner? Was the child who videotaped the event wrong to share it over social media? What was the bullying incident that started the chain of events?
Reflecting on her actions, Tinsley told CBS News that perhaps she didn’t handle the news of her daughter’s bullying as well as she could have.
“She made a comment to me that if she wasn’t as strong as she was, she would have killed herself,” Tinsley told KCal9 reporters, “That’s when Mama Bear mode went into effect.”
KCAL9 reports that Tinsley did speak to the school about the alleged bullying of her daughter by the group of boys, but noted that once she spoke up, “the bullying just got worse.”
Tinsley has said in her post that she took her case to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, but the investigation she receives may not be the one she hoped for.
According to Carrie Braun of the OCSD, the school’s mobile assessment team is investigating the incident, specifically with regard to how Tinsley got onto campus to create a ruckus.
“It is a requirement that everyone checks in,” Braun told Patch. “We take this very seriously, with school safety being such a huge priority. Someone coming onto the campus and creating a disturbance and there will be an investigation.”
The department also wants to continue to take a strong stance on bullying at every level, she told us.
“Sometimes, you have to just deal with the consequences,” Tinsley said to reporters, adding, “My daughter is number one.”
Patch has reached out to the Capistrano Unified School District for their response, and will update this report.
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This is a developing report. Please refresh for the latest information.