Update (September 30, 2019): A 12-year-old Black girl who accused three white boys of pinning her down on a playground slide and cutting her hair is retracting her statements.
Amari Allen originally told her family that the boys pinned her down, held her hands behind her back and cut her locs while calling them "ugly" and "nappy."
It wasn't until Allen's grandmother noticed a difference in her locs that she retold the false story of what happened at the Springfield, Virginia, school.
Immanuel Christian School released a statement on Monday.
"We can now confirm that the student who accused three of her classmates of assault has acknowledged that the allegations were false. We're grateful to the Fairfax County Police Department for their diligent work to investigate these allegations," Stephen Danish, head of Immanuel Christian School, said in a statement Monday.
"While we are relieved to hear the truth and bring the events of the past few days to a close, we also feel tremendous pain for the victims and the hurt on both sides of this conflict. We recognize that we now enter what will be a long season of healing," Danish continued.
A reporter went to Allen's home and was told the family is requesting privacy. The sixth grader's family released a statement.
"To the administrators and families of Immanuel Christian School, we are sorry for the damage this incident has done to trust within the school family and the undue scorn it has brought to the school. To the broader community, who rallied in such passionate support for our daughter, we apologize for betraying your trust," the family said.
"We understand there will be consequences, and we're prepared to take responsibility for them," the girl's family said. We know that it will take time to heal, and we hope and pray that the boys, their families, the school and the broader community will be able to forgive us in time," the statement continued.
Original: A 12-year-old Black girl and her family are distraught after she experienced a traumatizing attack by her white classmates this past week.
Amari Allen, a student at Immanuel Christian School in Fairfax, Virginia, was viciously attacked by a group of sixth-grade boys, who reportedly pinned her down while cutting her locs. According to reports, the students assaulted her because her hair was “nappy” and “ugly.”
Allen told WUSA9 that while one boy covered her mouth, another put her hands behind her back and a third boy cut her hair while using offensive language toward her.
The private school has a strict no-bullying policy, which states, “We define bullying as: The deliberate use of power to dominate, intimidate and harm another person physically and/or emotionally over an extended period of time with no significant provocation or justification."
According to NBC Washington, this is not the first time Allen has been bullied by the group of boys.
An exceptional straight-A student and violin player, Allen said the bullying started at the start of the school year.
A student at Immanuel Christian School says a group of boys pinned her and clipped her dreadlocks with scissors. Her family says the bullying has gone too far. They’ve filed a police report and are calling for the boys to be expelled. @ABC7News pic.twitter.com/rv14OToZS3
— Carl Willis (@CarlWillisTV) September 26, 2019
The soft-spoken preteen described the ordeal, “They kept laughing and calling me names. They called me ‘ugly,’ said, ‘I shouldn’t have been born.’ They called me ‘an attention-seeker.’”
Initially, Allen denied anything happened for fear of retaliation; it ultimately took her two days to reveal what happened to her family. Her grandmother said she noticed a difference in the length of her locs.
“It’s very painful,” Cynthia Allen said. “I want to see them dismissed from the school. I want to see something done.”
The school released a statement about the investigation into the incident.
“We take seriously the emotional and physical well-being of all our students, and have a zero-tolerance policy for any kind of bullying or abuse. We are deeply disturbed by the allegations being made, and are in communication with the family of the alleged victim to gather information and provide whatever support we can. We have also reached out to law enforcement to ask them to conduct a thorough investigation, and further inquiries should be directed to the Fairfax County Police.”
Immanuel Christian School is also the same school where Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, works.
Sources say she was not there at the time of the incident and has no connection to the attack.
