Lee’s Summit students walk out of class after alleged fight, bullying of LGBTQ student
Hundreds of students walked out of Lee’s Summit High School on Monday in support of a gay student who has allegedly faced harassment and bullying, leading to a recent fight that left one student injured.
A Change.org petition calling for “LGBTQ+ safety at Lee’s Summit High School” had garnered nearly 2,700 signatures as of Monday afternoon.
Danny Lillis, a senior who is gay, said that since the beginning of the school year, he and his friends have been targeted and bullied by another group of students.
“They have given them a hard time for Danny being gay, for him wearing makeup to school, for him expressing himself,” said Melanie Davies, mother of Lillis’ friend Malani Hohlbaugh.
Lillis said that the group of students had routinely spouted hateful remarks and thrown food at them. He claimed that he went to administrators at least four times to report the incidents, “crying, saying ‘I don’t feel safe’ repeatedly. And nothing changed.”
“Every single time that this happened, our kids have gone to student administration and reported it,” Davies said. “There is supposed to be a zero tolerance policy for bullying, but nobody is doing anything about. They haven’t gotten the help that they needed.”
After weeks of enduring the bullying, parents and students said the tension resulted in a fight at school last Wednesday.
“The same group of kids started in on them again, and my daughter just had enough. She ran up the stairs after one of the boys and yelled at him to not talk to them like that, to not say those things,” Davies said.
Lillis, Hohlbaugh and another friend confronted the boy, she said, and then turned around to find another student who also had been bullying them.
“They turned around and he was walking in front of them. My daughter tried to get around him. But their shoulders hit, and then he shoved her. So she shoved him back, and he punched her right in the face.”
“No teachers were around. Students broke it up.”
Davies claims that the school did not call her to inform her there had been a fight, or that her daughter had been hurt. She said her daughter threw up twice at school afterward. Davies later took her daughter to the emergency room, where they learned she had a broken nose.
Lillis also was left with bruises and cuts on his face, he said.
District spokeswoman Katy Bergen said in an email to The Star that, “all forms of bullying are prohibited in LSR7. We investigate all complaints of bullying that we receive.”
She declined to provide specifics regarding the alleged bullying, fight and disciplinary action.
“Everyone in the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District community deserves to feel safe and welcome. Harassment or discrimination in LSR7 is strictly prohibited,” she said. “Although laws protecting students’ privacy prevents us from discussing the specifics of this incident, we can share that school and district administrators are conducting an investigation and taking action to ensure the safety of all students and staff.”
“District administrators will follow Board of Education policies and procedures as we determine next steps. In LSR7, it is a top priority to ensure an inclusive culture where our students, staff members and families are valued and treated with dignity.”
Davies said that all students involved allegedly received the same punishment, five days of out-of-school suspension. Her daughter and friends also were not allowed to attend their senior homecoming dance, she said.
The Change.org petition argues that the students who were targeted should not have received the same discipline as the students who had been bullying them.
Students and parents argue that the school did not do enough to protect the students, who allegedly had reported the harassment several times prior to the fight.
“The school dropped the ball,” Davies said.
She claimed that school officials had offered her daughter and friends a no-contact agreement with the other students, but failed to deliver on that promise.
“They need to figure out why there was nobody around. Where were all the teachers (when the fight happened)? How did no one seem to notice it happening?” she said. “And they need to make sure it never happens again. This fight shouldn’t have been broken up by students. This clearly is an issue that has to be dealt with.”
Davies argued that the school needs to better enforce its zero tolerance policy for bullying and harassment.
“This is on the school. They should have taken care of this a long time ago when it was first brought to their attention,” Davies said. “I don’t condone my daughter using violence at school or anywhere else. But I also do know these kids were pushed to a point that they felt like if nobody else was going to stick up for them, they had to stick up for themselves.”
The petition demands that the high school administrators excuse the LGBTQ student and their allies from suspension.
It also asks officials to thoroughly investigate and respond to reports of harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation; to enforce the school’s zero tolerance policy for bullying; plus, to issue an apology for mishandling the incident and “for inflicting fear in all LSHS LGBTQ+ students in regards to their physical and mental safety at the school.”
Davies said her daughter and friends were reassured Monday, when hundreds of students walked out of class to protest, with many holding signs supporting LGBTQ students. Videos of the protest posted on social media showed students chanting, “We need to be heard.”
“I’m worried that others are going to be scared to stick up for their LGBTQ+ friends,” Lillis said. “My friend got punched in the face and suspended for standing up for me.”
It is the latest in a string of incidents regarding discrimination in Kansas City area schools in recent months.
The Raytown school district is investigating two incidents regarding the use of racial slurs. A few days after a Raytown teacher used the N-word in class, the school district announced it is also investigating a high school English class receiving a worksheet that included racial, homophobic and misogynistic slurs.
On Saturday, The Star reported that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights informed an area parent that it has opened an investigation into the Kearney School District after that parent filed a complain in May. The parent, Tiffaney Whitt, accused the school district of retaliation and discrimination in her complaint.
Earlier this week, Olathe South High School’s principal said the district is “thoroughly investigating” a student’s racist homecoming proposal.
And the Park Hill school district continues to address a racist petition calling for a return of slavery that was circulated online by students at Park Hill South High School.
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 4:44 PM.
