ROANOKE CITY, Va. – Isabel Vazquez says her 14-year-old daughter, Xionyah Figueroa, has been bullied for weeks—culminating in a fight on Feb. 27 on a William Fleming High School bus. The incident was caught on camera.
Xionyah, who goes by Nyah, is a freshman. She ended up in the hospital two days later, diagnosed with a concussion.
She says the bullying started in January.
”It’s hard because, you know, I came to the school, I made friends, and everything was going good until I cut her off because she was spreading toxic things about me,” said Figueroa.
That’s when Vazquez says her daughter was threatened.
”She started telling my daughter, ‘Why did you snitch on me?’ And my daughter’s like, ‘It wasn’t me, it was my mom,’” said Vazquez, describing the alleged threat. “‘Well tell your mom to stop being a snitch. She don’t know what she’s talking about. And I know where you live at. Don’t make me get my cousin’s gun on you.’”
Vazquez says she reported the threat to the Roanoke City Police Department and school administrators, but her requests for restraining orders were denied.
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“What am I supposed to do? Wait ‘til my daughter’s eye is hanging off of her face? Or wait ‘til she gets murdered, or wait ‘til a stray bullet hits one of my kids? They can shoot through my windows,” said Vazquez. “As a mother, all those thoughts go through my head. And I was outraged.”
Vazquez says school officials assured her they would keep those students away from Nyah. But she says the bullying continued, claiming the students would antagonize Nyah. She said that led to a fight in school. Nyah was suspended for 10 days.
“I brought it to the school administrators. I said, ‘Why are these students that are being pulled out of, away from daughter’s classes still able to cut classes and go to where she’s at to harass her? Can you pull those cameras back?’ I said, ‘They sit in the back of the bus and threaten her and call her out of her name. Can you please review that? I don’t feel like my child is safe,’” said Vazquez. “Things have just continued to escalate until she was assaulted.”
Vazquez, a single mother of four, says she left a domestic abuse situation. Now, she worries once again for her family’s safety, saying police and the school district aren’t doing enough.
“They need to start holding parents accountable. With the disregard to authority, they need to take that very serious. I wish they would. I wish when it’s bullying and both students aren’t engaging, they would take it up a notch—a whole notch. Instead of waiting ‘til somebody gets killed,” she said.
10 News reached out to Roanoke City Public Schools about the alleged bullying, threats, and the fight. The district responded with the following statement:
“Roanoke City Public Schools is committed to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment for all students. We take reports of bullying, fighting, and threats seriously and investigate them thoroughly. While we cannot discuss individual student matters due to privacy laws, we can share that on Thursday, February 27, administrators investigated a fight on a William Fleming school bus and took appropriate disciplinary action in accordance with the RCPS Student Code of Conduct. We also ask our families for their help in talking with their students about the importance of respectful behavior toward their peers, educators, and staff.”
Roanoke City Public Schools
