Coppell ISD is conducting an investigation after a video showing a student putting another into a headlock at Coppell Middle School North surfaced on social media.
In the recording captured on May 11, one student can be seen standing behind another student sitting in the cafeteria in what seemed to be a disagreement. After a few moments, the standing student puts the sitting student in a headlock.
The name of the standing student has not been made public.
Sonika Kukreja, the mother of the sitting student, Shaan Pritmani, is now asking for the other student to be removed from her son’s classes.
“It was horrible,” she told NBC 5. “I couldn’t sleep for three nights straight. I felt like I was being choked. I cried many times watching it.”
Kukreja finds it unfair that the student who put her son in a headlock received a one-day in-school suspension while her son was given a three-day suspension.
Kukreja, who has expressed concern over the school’s handling of the matter, circulated a petition online to get the district to take appropriate action.
“I am deeply concerned about the safety of our children and the message our school board, our police department, is sending out by not acting on this,” she said.
“We are demanding that the aggressor be removed from my son’s school immediately,” the petition reads.
“Shaan should be able to continue his school experience, friendships, and extra-curricular activities with zero worry of ever having to cross paths with this student. He does not feel safe,” Kukreja wrote.
The petition, which insists on “serious repercussions” for acts of violence against children, has gathered over 280,000 signatures.
Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt addressed the incident in a statement on May 15.
“Bullying, both verbal and physical, as well as physical acts of aggression are never acceptable and do not align with who we are at CISD and our core values,” Hunt said.
While Hunt condemned the situation and mentioned an investigation, he said the district could not share specific information regarding it or matters of student discipline.
An attorney for the standing student, Mark Lassiter, said in a statement that his client was responding to threats Shaan made against his family.
According to Lassiter, the Shaan made vulgar and violent threats against the standing student’s younger brother and the family members of other students at the table.
“We welcome a chance for the truth to come out,” Lassiter wrote, promising to cooperate with the investigation by authorities.
An attorney for Shaan, Marwa Elbially, denies the accusations made against her client. The violence should never have happened, Elbially said.
