WYOMING, Mich. — Monday night, concerned parents spoke out at a school board meeting in Kent County about bullying.
A Wyoming mom says it's been more than a month since her son was attacked after school, and she says she's still not seeing change from the district in addressing what she calls a larger bullying problem.
"I've been bullied for about two years," Liam Birman, a sixth grader at Wyoming Intermediate School, says.
The 12-year-old called on the school board during their Dec. 12 meeting to create a program to stop bullying.
"A couple of people just around the school just just to watch on people, on the children so that they won't get bullied," he says. "So they can stay safe inside of the school and make it so that they feel safe. And if they don't feel safe, that that's just not good for school."
His mom Danyle Nevius echoed those calls at the meeting.
"Because it's not just about him, it's about a larger issue," she says.
This comes after she says her son got in a fight on Nov. 1 with two bullies at the bus stop, leaving him with cuts on his face from scissors.
"I feel that two years of reports of bullying have gone unheeded by both the principal as well as the superintendent, even though they were reported multiple times, and by multiple parents," Nevius says.
During public comment, another parent says his son transferred schools because of bullying.
"It's been, I think, four years," Andrew Hanselman says. "Unfortunately, my wife and I had to pull my son, Steven, out of the district. It was with great sadness, that we had to do that, because we have previously loved this district."
At the end of the meeting, Board President Lisa Manley acknowledged the concerns of both parents.
"I am a parent of a daughter who was bullied, and I know exactly how you feel," she says.
Manley says the district will work on communication with families.
"We will partner," she says. "As you said, Wyoming Public Schools is an amazing place to be, but it is not perfect. So we will continue each and every day to strive to be and to do better, and to ensure that all of our kids are safe and that our parents know they are sending their kids to a safe place."
After the fight back in November, Birman was suspended for five days and the other two boys who were involved no longer go to the school.