Logo
  • Home
  • Ask
  • Teen Help Network
  • About
    • About Judge Tom
    • Books
    • FAQs
    • Press Room
  • Your Rights
    • Crime and Punishment
    • Student Rights at School
    • You and Your Body
    • You and the Internet
    • Juvenile Justice System
    • LGBT Youth Rights
    • More Categories
  • Blog
  • Get Help
    • Videos
    • A Teenager’s Guide to Juvenile Court
    • Books
    • Research & Resources
  • Newsletter Signup

 

Q&A

Know your rights! Youth justice and juvenile law answers.

Askthejudge.info features regular updates from the news, important decisions from the nation′s courts, and online discussions with Judge Tom. Find out everything you need to know about youth rights, juvenile law and juvenile justice. AsktheJudge – Empowering youth one question at a time.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this site is made available to the general public and is not intended to serve as legal advice.You should consult a trained legal professional in your area for questions you may have about the laws affecting juveniles or any legal interpretations.

Copyright, 2014
Logo
April 5, 2017
Judge Tom
Blog
0

4th graders bullied by parents in Indiana

PreviousNext

Five students from Pleasant Run Elementary School in Indianapolis, Indiana, call themselves the Panther Bots. The fourth-graders combined their talents and built a machine from Legos. Team members included Elijah Goodwin, Angel Herrera-Sanchez, Jose Verastegui, Manuel Mendez, and Devilyn Bolyard. They were either Hispanic or Black, aged nine and ten, and came from a low-income part of town.

At a local robotics competition in February, 2017, a few parents and students started heckling the Panther Bots as they took the lead. According to Angel’s mother, one person yelled  “Oh my God, they are champions of the city all because they are Mexican.” Later in the parking lot, the Panther Bots were surrounded by angry people telling them to “go back to Mexico.”

One of the Panther Bots, Elijah, commented about the heckling as follows:  “They yelled out rude comments, and I think that they can talk all they want because at the end we’re still going to Worlds. It’s not going to affect us at all. I’m not surprised because I’m used to this kind of behavior.” True to his words, a few weeks later, the Panther Bots won a Create Award at the state competition and were heading to the Vex IQ World Championship in Louisville, KY.

The team crowdfunded the money to take their robotics skills to the next level and quickly met their goal of $8,000 by raising over $12,000. Great work, guys. We commend you on your skills and more importantly, your strength to look beyond the remarks of an ignorant few.

Picture of Panther Bots via GoFundMe.com

AsktheJudge.info rock starsbullyingdiscrimination
Share this
Judge Tom

The Author Judge Tom

Judge Tom is the founder and moderator of AsktheJudge.info. He is a retired juvenile judge and spent 23 years on the bench. He has written several books for lawyers and judges as well as teens and parents including 'Teen Cyberbullying Investigated' (Free Spirit Publishing) and 'Every Vote Matters: the Power of Your Voice, from Student Elections to the Supreme Court' (Free Spirit Publishing). In 2020, the American Bar Association published "Cyberbullying Law," the nation's first case-law book written for lawyers, judges and law students. When he's not answering teens' questions, Judge Tom volunteers with the American Red Cross and can be found hiking, traveling and reading.

Find great resources in our

Teen Help Network


Leave A Comment Cancel reply