Starnes Digital
Shelby County Board of Education
The front of the Shelby County Schools building in Columbiana on Nov. 4, 2024. Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
The family of a Chelsea student who died by suicide have painted a bleak picture of the boy’s life at school – a series of struggles with bullying, behavioral disorders and, allegedly, an unresponsive school system which protected “bad actors.”
The allegations were made in a court filing on Oct. 29. The parents of the student, Gloria and Jeremy McQueen, filed suit against Shelby County Schools, charging the system didn’t do enough to prevent their son, Jackson McQueen, from taking his life even though employees at the schools he attended were aware he was being bullied at school.
For six years, Jackson McQueen was a student in the Shelby County system starting at fourth grade at Chelsea Park Elementary until his final year as a freshman at Chelsea High School.
On April 9, 2022, Jackson McQueen died after shooting himself in his home after attempts at resuscitation by his brother were unsuccessful. He was discovered by his parents.
The filing says throughout his attendance at the schools, including Chelsea Middle School, Jackson McQueen was called names, attacked and targeted by fellow students.
“In the year preceding his death Jackson had come to believe that nothing would be done to stop, or even mitigate, the bullying and abuse he endured,” the filing said. “He expressed feeling hopeless and believed everyone at the school hated him. He could not understand why this was the case, but he could not be convinced otherwise.”
In the filing, the family said Jackson McQueen suffered from several mental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, impulse control disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and those “were the primary basis for the cruel treatment Jackson received from his fellow students.”
The family said just weeks before he died he was on track to complete his freshman year, was a good student and had been able to attain some control over his disabilities, but he could not overcome the “unfettered and seemingly sanctioned abuse he was subjected to at school year after year.”
Among the alleged abuses Jackson McQueen suffered, the family said were:
A student in fifth grade grabbed him and pushed him to the ground, telling him to remember that “he was invisible.”
In his sixth grade year in 2018, other students on his bus told him he was “hated by everyone” due to his “mental issues.” That same year, they say, he was pushed, kicked and sat on by an older student.
Still in sixth grade, they say, a student told him, “I’m going to take your ruler and beat the (expletive) out of you.”
After Gloria McQueen talked to the school about the bullying, one of the students who accosted Jackson McQueen said, “Tell you mama, (expletive) you.”
While in the library in sixth grade, a student slapped him in the face repeatedly, leaving his face red and swollen for days.
Jackson McQueen, the family said, was told by other students that they “wanted to kill themselves from being around him.”
In 2019, the family said, the bullying escalated including being struck in the back of the head and elbowed in his side while repeatedly being called an offensive term for someone with mental disabilities and “autistic kid.” Students threatened him with violence and hurled profanities at him.
Still in 2019, a fellow student began to verbally assault him, they said. Jackson McQueen replied her words couldn’t hurt him. The student then dug her nails into his forearm.
Students would attack him with slurs referencing his sexuality and mental capabilities.
In band practice, they said, another student pushed Jackson McQueen’s saxophone off of his chair onto the floor and cursed at him..”
The abuses, the filing said, abated when students were home during the pandemic in 2020 and resumed when in-person learning resumed in 2021. Several of “most frequent abusers were football players,” the filing said.
The filing says that personnel at the schools did nothing to curb the incidents, including punishing those involved in the bullying - and in some cases disciplined Jackson McQueen for the altercations. The family says little consideration was given to their son’s disabilities throughout.
“The Defendants effectively cooperated in doing nothing to address the culture of bullying their schools,” the suit said, “and their refusal to take action to protect Jackson amounts to the level of indifference giving rise to this action.”
