Micah Parsons, Marcus Smart reach out to support bullied special needs student

The video appears to show the student receiving the haircut wiping his eyes while the other students are circling around him, recording and laughing. 17 News is not airing the video because the student is a juvenile and his mother asked us not to.

The video contains explicit language. You can hear one of the students tell him not to cry in Spanish and then the group laughs.

Abe Santiago, the mother of the Arvin High student who was seen having his head shaved in a video that circulated on social media, was clear about what she wanted.

“What I ask for is that they stop the bullying, that there would be no more deaths, and that there would be justice,” Santiago said.

“They showed me the video, and I couldn’t believe it was my son. My son is a good person. He’s naive and all he wanted was to fit in with his peers, make friends. He just wanted what everyone else does. He just wanted to fit in with friends.”

Arvin High School administration is aware of a video circulating on social media. The behavior exhibited in the video is clearly unacceptable, and we do not condone bullying of any kind. When students breach the boundaries of acceptable behavior, they will be held accountable for their actions, and the school will provide support to any affected student. The incident is being thoroughly investigated, and appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken.