Mother claims daughter being unfairly labeled ‘bully’ after JCPS bus incident

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A Jefferson County Public Schools mother believes her daughter is being unfairly labeled as a bully after last week’s explosive school bus incident.

The incident happened Friday afternoon while children were on the way home from Carter Elementary School.

It shows Delvantae King board the bus and threaten the students in a profanity-laced tirade.

The video has been seen by thousands, and has sparked conversation across the city.

King told WAVE News Tuesday he was defending his nine-year-old daughter, who he said has been a victim of bullying.

On Wednesday afternoon, the mother of the student who King’s rant was directed toward told her side of the story.

“She’s out here viral as a bully,” Angel Clay said. “My daughter’s not a bully, and I’m here to clear her name.”

Clay told WAVE News she first found out what happened while she was at work Friday afternoon. She scrambled to pick her daughter up from school. She then saw the video from the incident and was floored.

“As a mother, I was disgusted,” Clay said. “My blood was boiling. I don’t stand for a whole lot, but respect is on the top of the list. And he got on the bus, launching and going to my child, calling her names that no man should ever call a woman, let alone a child. So I felt the pain, seen the pain in my daughter’s face. She was scared.”

Clay told WAVE News there are several videos taken by students at Carter Elementary that prove her point, and show students coming after her daughter.

“I’m not saying she’s never been in ISAP (In-School Adjustment Program) or never been to the principal,” Clay said. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. She’s going to be held accountable. My daughter knows her mother doesn’t play that. Has she probably ever... you know, no. But she’s not a bully, and she ain’t never bullied them two little girls that live down the street and go to the school with her.”

Clay also told WAVE News on Wednesday that King has never approached her or her partner, Lennard Erving, about the issues at school, like King claimed he had to WAVE News on Tuesday.

“Never once have I seen or heard from this man,” Erving said. “This is his first appearance to the table, and this is the way he made his appearance. He’s not a concerned father. He hasn’t been to that school, checking on anything. No one at that school knows this man. This is the way he made his entrance.”

At the end of the day, despite what may or may not have been said or done, Clay just wants people to know the way her daughter feels.

Right now, that feeling is sadness.

“He never once said I apologize to the kid that he used all that profanity towards,” Clay’s daughter Alasia Smith said. “If you were supposed to make a public apology, why wasn’t I included in that? Because, the way that he approached me and you were talking to me out of my name. No one’s talked to me like that, and for a man that I don’t even know to talk to me like that is just... you don’t have that right to talk to me like that.”

To date, King has not been arrested or charged with any crime.

WAVE News has also submitted an open records request to JCPS to validate if any bullying complaints have been filed.