VALDOSTA – One week after proposing a new state law that would require schools to track students missing from class, Georgia State Representative Dexter Sharper issued a statement on social media claiming he has been harassed by the members of the “KJ Movement” and the family of Kendrick Johnson, the student who inspired the idea.
Sharper (D-Valdosta) said last week he wants school administrators to take extra steps to track down students who arrive at school but are absent in class later in the day, according to CNHI reports.
The proposed law is in response to the 2013 death of Kendrick Johnson. Johnson’s body was found upside down in a vertically-stored athletic mat at Lowndes high School. A state autopsy ruled the 17-year-old’s death accidental, but Johnson’s parents insist their son died of foul play. A federal review of the Johnson case in its third year.
Sharper, who is a distant relative of Johnson, said the law is an effort to do “something positive” in Johnson’s memory, but Jacquelyn Johnson, Kendrick’s mother, told CNHI the lawmaker “will never, ever get our blessing.”
On Tuesday, Sharper took to Facebook to post about his experience with the Johnson case.
“Since a week or so after the death of Kendrick ‘KJ’ Johnson I have been attacked verbally and even physically threatened by a few members of the ‘KJ Movement,'” wrote Sharper on his Facebook page. “The parents continue to take every opportunity to attack me. The Mother has verbally attacked me on several occasions including social media.”
Sharper said he believes his strained relationship with Johnson’s parents is due to sharing his “professional opinion” of how Kendrick died. Sharper, a paramedic, said after Johnson’s death he went to Lowndes High School in an attempt to recreate a theory investigators developed concerning how Johnson died. The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation determined Johnson died of positional asphyxia after getting stuck inside an athletic mat while reaching for a shoe.
Sharper said he had one of the mats placed horizontally and was able to fit most of his body inside the mat and found it difficult to breathe.
“If the mat was Vertical and no opening at the bottom then my body would have closed off my oxygen supply and my breathing would become more shallow and my heart rate would increase and required greater demand for oxygen and due to the fact I would have breathing out (exhaling) CO2 and breathing In (inhaling) CO2 that would make me Hypoxic which is being without oxygen to vital parts of my body like my brain, lungs and heart,” wrote Sharper.
Sharper said he shared that opinion with Johnson’s parents on the same day he went to the gym.
“I went on to share the information and explained the walk through from earlier that day and my part in getting in the mat. I also stated in my 25 years of medical experience as a Paramedic I have seen some of the same signs, symptoms, illnesses and injuries but that is all preliminary until autopsies and other research is completed and confirmed. I was very upfront and told them that with the information I have received and my medical experience that so far I felt it was 98% chance of it being an accident,” Sharper wrote.
Since then, Sharper said he has been called “an Uncle Tom” and a “Sell Out” for agreeing with the state autopsy which determined Johnson’s death was a tragic accident. Sharper said he blames “outsiders,” particularly from the Atlanta area, who have come to Valdosta “stirring up problems.” He said several people have verbally attacked him and his staff over the issue.
Sharper said he believes the notion Johnson was murdered is based on unsubstantiated rumors.
“I have not taken the attacks personally because you can not please everybody and you are not going to agree with everybody. In closing I wanted to let people know the facts of what has been going on with me in this ordeal. I will continue to pray for Closure for the Family and this Community,” Sharper wrote.
