“Momma, pray for me. Momma, pray for me. I’m going to throw up.”
That’s what the Tate High School student told his mother over his cell phone on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 1. He was scared and nauseous having just watched an Tate football player force a girl to perform oral sex on the athlete while his fellow athletes laughed and blocked the teacher’s view. The boy was calling his mother from the school bathroom.
According to her son, he heard the athlete, Raymond Teamer, tell the victim that she was going to suck his d#$#. She said, “Yeah, right. Not in this lifetime.” Then the witness looked over and he saw her head in Teamer’s crotch with his hand on her neck and head forcing the girl on to his genital. The girl has her hand on a computer desk and a chair trying to get up, but the Teamer is too strong.
Teamer finally lets her up to breathe. The girl is coughing, gagging and spitting. The witness sees the fear and helplessness in her eyes as Teamer forces her back down on him. Finally she gets away and runs to the bathroom. Teamer’s buddies laugh at her as she leaves the room asking her why was her hair messed up.
The mother shared this after I agreed to protect her and her son’s identities. She is worried about retaliation against her son. According to her, Teamer has already coached all the students in the class what to say and he has intimidated anyone from anyone from saying anything different. The mother is disappointed and frustrated in how Tate principal Rick Shackle has handled the investigation. It was she who called the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on March 4 to report the sexual assault.
The mother also shared that she has talked with the mother of the victim, who said that school officials told her that her daughter was a willing participant. The girl had told her mother otherwise, but the mother believed the school until she got the call from the witness’s mother.
This is, at best, a bungled investigation by Principal Rick Shackle. At worst, it’s a massive cover-up where witnesses live in fear and the victim is made out to be the criminal.