ABBEVILLE, La. (KLFY) – One of the students in the viral video from Abbeville High talks about his side of the incident and how his life has changed.
“I get text messages. I get all types of notifications that people slander me in the comments and people are really coming toward me as a bully, but I really feel like some of them things matter in the world, but it doesn’t really matter to me because I know I did wrong,” said graduating senior Tyrone Glover Jr.
He explained how he hears different media outlets claiming the students in the video stole the chair. “How it really went; the second one in the video, he was actually bringing the wheelchair back to where it belonged,” said Glover Jr.
He admits he was acting like a disabled person. He acknowledged he was wrong for using the wheelchair. However, he expressed he was troubled. “If I’m wrong for mocking a disabled kid, I should be wrong for mocking all, not just one,” he said. He added, “I apologized to him, and I apologized to his mother, but when I see more things getting thrown at me, at my classmates, at my friends, I just be asking myself, what is it really about? Is it about the chair? Is it about him, or is it really about consequences that we didn’t get yet?”
News 10 spoke with his mother. Shanda Porter. She said she was upset when she saw the video through social media. “Did I acknowledge Tyrone that that was not right I did it wasn’t until I spoke with him. He told me, mama, he assured me that he was not mocking anybody,” says Porter.
She expressed how seeing the story shared on major outlets has been challenging to hear what people say about the situation and her son. “Going to these Hollywood things and seeing 647,000 comments about a chair, a wheelchair being stolen from him, I, as a Mother, can’t accept that,” said Porter. “I believe that consequences, if he was doing that, should be done, but I don’t think he was doing that. Should he have consequences for the wheelchair? I can accept that, but other than that, no, I will not. As the mother, I will not accept that,” says Porter
Furthermore, she said she and her son made a private apology to Tay’Shawn’s family.
“I could stop apologizing for the matter because it really bothered me to where the whole rest of the day. I worked two jobs. The whole day I was crying. You know, I just couldn’t put the pieces together. Just looking at the horrible things that were being said to my son about my son. He’s still human. A prank went wrong,” she said. “He has a future. Tyrone has so many accomplishments, even as a kid Tyrone his accomplishments. He got class clown, so we definitely know that’s what he did his senior year.”
Porter said everyone is going to have their own opinion about her son, but she knows if he could take back what he did, he would.
“I’m sorry Tay’Shawn, for the actions I committed, and I hope you feel as special as you need to feel because you are a special person not only to one but to all, and Ms. Kimberly, I know how you feel as a mother; as a caretaker of all your kids and all your family, and for the grandmothers, I also apologize for being that person that I know I’m not. If ya’ll can forgive me, that would be really great not only for me but for everybody that’s looking down on me,” said Glover Jr.
The school officials said they are still investigating the situation, and any disciplinary action toward the students or/and faculty are confidential.
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