A mom on TikTok is being applauded for the way she handled someone who was bullying her child. Dealing with your child's bully is a complex situation — you know you're dealing with a child and as the adult you have to watch yourself. But at the same time, your only focus is making sure that your child feels safe and protected. As a parent, you have to walk a fine line.
Most of the time, parents try to keep their distance when it comes to bullies, but if the adults in charge aren't handling the situation in a timely or satisfactory manner, then we have no choice but to step in and make things happen.
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The mom filmed the entire interaction.
TikTok user Yasmine Payne, @bigyammip, shared the video of her confronting her daughter's school bus bully. The video starts with her daughter filming the older child who yells, "If you don’t take that f—ing camera off me, I swear to f—king God."
Next, it cuts to Payne climbing the school bus to confront the child. She first addresses the bus driver to ask about the incident, but the bus driver can't seem to recall the incident. "You should remember stuff like this," Payne responds.
Payne made her feelings about the situation clear to the student.
After asking her daughter to point out the bully, Payne then addresses the child directly. "Ain’t no cussing, ain’t no nothing," she tells the 10th grader. "Don’t cuss out another seventh grader. Don’t cuss out an eighth-grader. You don’t cuss out a ninth-grader."
Payne also admonished her daughter for not telling anyone about the bullying incident, and when the bus driver tried to speak, angrily told them "you shrugged your shoulders."
She made it clear to all the students on the bus that she was there to protect them, too.
"Don’t let her bully y’all, ’cause you ain’t gonna bully mine," Payne addressed the high schooler before turning her attention to the bus driver.
"You being a bus driver, you gotta get it under control," she demanded. "I better not get another call from my daughter or another video or nothing. And you make sure you call your supervisor because this better be the last time somebody say anything to my child."
Payne then exited the bus, telling the children to have a good day at school.
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People commended Payne for standing up for the kids being bullied.
"She stood 10 toes on it!" someone exclaimed. "You go momma!"
"I woulda definitely cracked the driver ," another wrote.
Someone else commented: "It's the 'I got all y'all backs along with mines; then the 'y'all have a good day at school & continue learning for me' lol. This is the meaning of: IT TAKES A VILLAGE! Good job mom!"
"Go get em, mama! ," another comment reads. "You’re setting such a great example for all those kids as well. Standing up for yourself and for others is one of the most important things to teach our kids. ."
She shared an update about the incident.
Payne shared several videos giving more details about the situation and what was being done to make things better. First, she explained that the bully's outburst began after her daughter screamed due to a jump-scare video, prompting the high schooler to threaten her if she screamed again. That's what made the seventh grader begin filming.
Her daughter did in fact alert adults to the incident. While the driver never addressed the incident, Payne learned that the principal of her daughter's school had already reached out to the high school to get more information about the bully. They advised her to reach out to the high school as well, which she planned to do. In the meantime, the high schooler was still being allowed to ride the bus.
Finally, Payne revealed that she was banned from the middle school for a year because it's against the rules for her to board the bus. The bus driver didn't make her aware of that rule when she approached the bus.
"I told [the principal] I accept the consequences because rules are rules. To break a rule, you have consequences, so I accept the consequences," she said.