The parent of an Alabama high school student is speaking out after he was arrested on charges of trespassing, disorderly conduct, harassment, reckless endangerment and domestic violence for being present at a fight that took place in the Calera Middle School locker rooms.
Cedric Specks says the fight Tuesday was the result of years of his son, an eighth-grader, being bullied by another student. Calera police called the video “very disturbing.”
“Since they started playing ball together, that kid has always been bullying my kid,” Specks told the local CBS affiliate, noting that for a long time he had tried to defuse the situation between his son and the other student.
“I told my son, words are words, as long as nothing gets to the point of being physical, just let it go. In the end, y’all are teammates.”
But things progressed this year and turned physical. According to Specks, his son had texted him Sunday night and his son told him that the other student said they would fight in the locker room.
Specks said that he emailed the head coach of the school’s football team about the issues and that the coach responded, saying he would look into the issue.
On Tuesday, Specks said that the other child pushed his son, and his son punched the other football player. The next morning after football practice, Specks’ son was hesitating to enter the locker room to retrieve his thing for fear of being assaulted.
“As soon as my son walks in the door, the kid says ‘so you wanna fight?’ And my son said ‘yeah.’ They started fighting,” Specks said. “And I was in there, and I’m totally wrong for that. But at this point, just get it over with. It was probably a terrible parenting decision, but in the long run, in my opinion, that’s what’s best for my son – is that he go on and do what he needs to do. Because he was standing there looking pitiful waiting on another kid to bring out his stuff.”
Specks maintains that the school should have stopped the fight, reiterating that he’d notified the football coach that things were going to come to a head. When asked whether he is guilty of the charges, Specks said he may be guilty on some charges but also said that many of the charges should be dropped, such as trespassing.
“When I was asked to leave, I left,” he said. “Then they called me to the school and arrested me for trespassing. That will be taken care of.”
Specks said parents should not just assume that their kids are safe.
“If my kid is being bullied and he’s one of the best athletes at the school… imagine what little Johnny is going through,” he said. “My son knows he can talk to me about anything. What if little Johnny don’t feel comfortable going and talking to his parents about being bullied. That’s the one that you guys will be doing the next news story about.”
