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Grandmother arrested says she was protecting 11-year-old

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A grandmother arrested on charges of threatening a student said she was trying to protect her grandson.

Marvis Henry, who has had custody of her grandson since he was 3 weeks old, said he was being bullied. And she said the torment hasn't stopped.

Henry was charged with disruption of the operation of a public school and disorderly conduct. Deputies said she walked to a classroom at Forest Park Middle School and confronted a student her 11-year-old said had been bullying him. 

"I pointed my finger to him. I said, 'You let me tell you something. You keep your hands off my child.' And then I said, 'If you mess with him. I will mess you up  --  your momma and your whole generation,'" Henry explained.
           
Channel 2's Tom Jones asked her if approaching the child was the right thing to do.

"No, but I had no other way to get attention to this situation. My child was suffering every day," she said in tears.
           
Henry said the bullies are still taunting and attacking him to the point he's threatening suicide and doesn't want to go to school.

"But I told him, 'If you don't go to school, they're going to put me in jail. You have to go,'" she cried.
           
Henry said the school has done nothing to stop the bullying, but a representative with the school system said the child keeps telling school officials he's now friends with the bullies.

Despite that, the school system says it is working on an individual protection plan where an adult will monitor the student throughout the day to make sure no one bothers him.
           
Henry wants whatever will ease her grandson's pain and end the bullying. She said what hurts the most is she can't be at the school since a judge ordered her to stay away.

"You're sending my son in the lion's den, and I can't even be there with him to watch him burn up," she said.
           
Schools spokesman David Waller said the school system desperately wants what's best for the child and is even willing to meet Henry and her husband at home to solve the problem.