A Minnesota mother shared her horror after discovering her nine-year-old daughter was ambushed in the schoolyard because she “wasn’t Muslim.”
Shawna Larson, 33, shared Liz Collins of Alpha News that her daughter was attacked on April 29 while attending Hidden Valley Elementary in Savage, Minnesota.
She said she was stunned when she was approached by her daughter’s teachers and told that four female classmates attacked her “because of her race and her religion because she was not Muslim.”
“So that was pretty shocking to hear,” Larson added.
Shawna Larson, 33, said she was stunned when she learned her nine-year-old daughter was ambushed in the schoolyard because she ‘wasn’t Muslim’
The Minnesota mother said her daughter suffered severe bruising from the attack, after four classmates pulled her to the ground by her hair before punching and kicking her.
After Larson was first told about the bullying incident, she said she was shocked by the bullying, but initially pleased that it did not appear to have caused any real harm.
But the next day she said she realized it was worse than she feared when her daughter started bruising badly.
“Then we noticed she had a black eye, and we immediately took a picture of it,” she said.
“When she came home that day, I took a look at her and she had bruises on her arms and a bruise on her back, bruises all over her legs.”
Larson was able to extract details of her daughter’s attack after realizing the extent of her injuries, and was told by the nine-year-old that the girls pulled her to the ground by her hair before punching and kicking her.
“She told me she tried to get up and when she tried to get up the first time and go get help, and I believe it was the first time they got her on the ground, she tried to fight back’ she said.
“They told her that if she hit or touched them, they would hurt themselves and tell the teacher she had hurt them.”
Larson said her daughter admitted that “all I could do was lay there, Mom.”
The mother criticized her daughter’s school’s response to the attack, pointing in particular to CCTV footage which she said showed the group of bullies running out of camera view to carry out the ambush.
“My daughter had done nothing to initiate this or create what had happened. This was only because of her race and her religion. So that was a big thing,” she said.
The day after learning of the ambush, Larson said her daughter began to develop heavy bruising on her arms, legs and back.
Larson said her daughter’s bullies threatened her not to fight back, later admitting to her mother that “all I could do was lay there, Mom.”
Larson emphasized that she believes if a group of Christian students did the same to a Muslim child, there would be a national outcry. .
“This would be all over the national news. You know, and it shouldn’t be that way. Our children shouldn’t even be in the media for things like this,” she said.
“The same outrage should be felt by every child, because no child should be attacked on a playground and feel unsafe at school because her attackers are still there.”
Larson said she decided to report the attack to Savage police because the school district had failed to do so.
“Just the lack of action that the school took, which I understand to some extent the school has its own rules and its own laws that they have to follow,” she continued.
“But the fact that this was fueled by race and religion, the fact that they were never suspended or expelled or redirected to distance learning instead of staying in the classroom.”
In a statement to Alpha News, the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District said student safety was a “top priority” but declined to provide details.
“We cannot share private information about students, including details about student behavior or discipline,” the statement read.
‘The safety of students and staff is our top priority and we take any incident that could endanger others very seriously.
“We strive to work with families in this way, and as always, we follow our established policies and procedures when it comes to student conduct, which are outlined in the board-approved student handbook.”
The mother criticized the response of her daughter’s school, Hidden Valley Elementary in Savage, Minnesota (pictured), saying she filed a police report when the school district did not.
Larson concluded that while she did not want her daughter to switch classes, she was forced to do so because two of her attackers shared a classroom with her.
“I thought if anyone should change classes it should be the students who attacked my daughter because I feel like her moving means she did something wrong and she didn’t do anything wrong,” she said . .
“She was just outside playing on the playground that day.
“But ultimately it came down to she just didn’t feel safe and we let this be her decision and her decision was that she wanted to move because she didn’t feel safe.”