‘Targeted attack’: Allendale County kid terrified to go to school

ALLENDALE, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - Fighting for equality. That’s what one mother is doing after she says her child is terrified to go back to school after being jumped in a bathroom attack.

She believes his race, gender identity, and communication disorder are the reasons he was targeted.

“The slurs, the n-word, the f-word, all of the hateful LGBT slurs. I think that’s really what made him a target for her and her friend group,” said Natasha Green.

Seven days ago, a video shows a group of students attacking 13-year-old Zyvion Rivers in a bathroom at Allendale-Fairfax Middle School. Since the attack, he hasn’t been the same.

This is his first year in the Allendale County School System. Green says they were aware he was being picked on, and they had worked on some coping mechanisms since he has trouble communicating, but she had no idea it was this bad.

“We pull up to the school, my son doesn’t look like himself in the face. He’s there physically. He’s like a whole other person,” she said.

Following the attack, her son was put in the back of an ambulance. She described those moments to us.

“He’s still hallucinating in this moment where he sees these kids in front of him. He sees this girl in front of him. He sees these two boys off to the side trying to attack him,” said Green.

She’s talking about the fight caught on video that sent her 13-year-old son into what she calls a full psychotic episode.

“The portion of the video that I have shows kids. You see him with his phone. I’m assuming that’s at the point where he’s tried to call 911. You see him standing there, he kind of takes a stance where he’s like, they’re like, well do something, and the boys telling them, ‘go ahead and hit me. Go ahead and hit me.’ He’s not going to hit him, of course, and then you hear ‘three, two, one’ and this other child charges at him. Like he’s just a standard target,” she said.

And the effects have yet to wear off.

“He’s not eating. He’s not sleeping, and he’s having constant headaches. Since Wednesday, he’s been to emergency rooms to try to figure out what we can do about those headaches, and he’s still not had any relief,” she said.

Green believes it was a targeted attack. She says the school isn’t doing enough for her son.

“Dr. Robinson told me, he said, ‘I promised you that I would make sure your son was safe. I apologize. We let you down.’ As soon as we said anything about my son wanting to press charges, it became a different scenario. They would tell me things that they thought I wanted to hear. That doesn’t bring back my child’s mental state,” she said.

And now it’s a fight for justice.

“Fight for me. I’m gonna continue to advocate for these kids. These kids need to know how to come together and not be so against each other and accept each other for who they are,” said Green.

We have reached out to the school for comment multiple times but have yet to hear back.

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