Minnesota girl, 9, is attacked by gang of four school bullies because she isn't Muslim, with school then refusing to suspend them, victim's mom says

A Minnesota mother shared her horror after discovering her nine-year-old daughter was ambushed on the school playground because she 'wasn't Muslim.' 

Shawna Larson, 33, told Alpha News' Liz Collins that her daughter was attacked on April 29 while at Hidden Valley Elementary in Savage, MN. 

She said that she was stunned to be approached by her daughter's teachers and told that four female classmates set upon her 'due to her race and her religion because she wasn't Muslim.' 

'So that was pretty jarring to hear,' Larson added.

Shawna Larson, 33, said she was stunned to be told that her nine-year-old daughter was ambushed on the school playground because she 'wasn't Muslim' 

The Minnesota mother said her daughter developed heavy bruising from the attack, after four classmates pulled her to the ground by her hair before punching and kicking her 

After first being told about the bullying incident, Larson said she was shocked by the bullying but was initially glad that it didn't appear to have caused any real damage. 

But by the next day, she said she realized that it was worse than she feared as her daughter began to bruise heavily. 

'That’s when we noticed that she had a black eye, and we immediately took a picture of it,' she said.

'When she came home that day, I just kind of looked her over and she had bruises on her arms and a bruise on her back, bruises all over her legs.' 

Larson pried details of the attack from her daughter after realizing the extent of her injuries, and was told by the nine-year-old that the girls pulled her to the floor by her hair before punching and kicking her. 

'She told me she tried to get up and when she tried to get up and go for help the first time, and I believe it was the first time that they had gotten her on the ground, that she was trying to fight back,' she said. 

'They had told her that if she hit them or she touched them, that they would hurt themselves and tell the teacher that she had hurt them.'

Larson said her daughter admitted that 'all I could do there is lay there, Mom.' 

The mother slammed the response from her daughter's school over the attack, and particularly pointed to camera footage that she said showed the group of bullies running out of camera view to carry out the ambush. 

'My daughter hadn’t done anything to initiate this or create what had happened. This was just because of her race and her religion. So that was a big thing,' she said. 

The day after learning of the ambush, Larson said her daughter began to develop heavy bruising on her arms, legs and back 

Larson said her daughter's bullies threatened her not to fight back, and later admitted to her mother that 'all I could do there is lay there, Mom' 

Larson stressed that she believes if a group of Christian students had done the same to a Muslim child, there would be a nationwide outcry. . 

'This would be all over national news. You know, and it shouldn’t be that way. Our children shouldn’t even be in the media for stuff like this in the first place,' she said. 

'The same outrage should be there for every child because no child should be attacked on a playground and made to feel unsafe at school because her attackers are still there.'  

Larson said she decided to report the attack to the Savage Police Department, because the school district failed to. 

'Just the lack of action the school was taking, which I do understand to a point that the school has their own rules and their own laws that they have to follow,' she continued. 

'But the fact that because this was race and religion fueled, the fact that they were never suspended or expelled from school or redirected to distance learning instead of continuing to stay in the classroom.' 

In a statement to Alpha News, the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District said student safety was a 'top priority' but declined to offer specifics. 

'We can’t share any private data about students, including specifics about student behavior or discipline,' the statement read.

'Student and staff safety is our top priority, and we take any incident that could endanger others very seriously. 

'We’re committed to working with families as we do that, and as always, we follow our established policies and procedures when it comes to student behavior, which are outlined in the board-approved student handbook.' 

The mother criticized the response from her daughter's school Hidden Valley Elementary in Savage, Minnesota (pictured) and said she filed a police report when the school district didn't 

Larson concluded that although she didn't want her daughter to switch classes, she was forced to as two of her attackers shared a classroom with her. 

'I thought that if anybody should have to switch classes, it should have been the students who attacked my daughter because I feel like her having to move is telling her that she did something wrong and she didn’t do anything wrong,' she said. 

'She just was outside playing on the playground that day. 

'But ultimately, it came down to her just not feeling safe and we let this be her decision and her decision was that she wanted to move because she didn’t feel safe.'