Area youth rally after autistic Pima Junior High student attacked 

The incident, under investigation by the Pima Police Department, was captured on video and shared with students throughout the area schools. In the video, Derek can be seen walking between the school and the nearby convenience store Speedway when some boys encourage another youth to attack him from behind. The youth complies and stumbles as he strikes at Derek, hitting him in the head with his arm/elbow. 

After seeing the video, Derek’s father, Robert Shotts, informed police, who began an investigation. Since then, the youth who struck Derek has exhibited remorse and apologized. 

According to Robert, while Derek is 14, his autism gives him a mindset of someone half that age. “I mean, like I said, he’s special needs,” Robert said. “No more anything to say about that. But it was just a brutal, brutal thing. And then whoever recorded it sent the video all through the school. And then now all these high schoolers got it. And these high schoolers are like, oh, hell no, that ain’t right.”

Robert recalled being in McDonald’s picking up an order for his delivery service when he overheard some youths talking about the video and saying they wanted to show Derek their support. Even before the event, some youth had started texting Derek messages of support. 

“One of the kids did ask me, he’s like, does your son have a phone? I said, ‘yeah, my son has a phone, but he doesn’t have it during school,’” Robert said. “And he’s not on social media. He just has a phone for texting or whatever. And he’s like, ‘Can I have his number?’ So, I gave one of the kids the number. And before I know it, I mean, my son’s had nine messages on his phone just from yesterday.”

And on Thursday, as Derek left school for the day, he was greeted by the area youth, who cheered and gave him High-5’s and hugs.

“I think it’s truly amazing,” Robert told the Gila Herald. “Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. For people that bully other kids – people that have autism, dyslexia, all kinds of different issues and they get bullied in school. It’s not their fault . . . I think it’s a wonderful thing as far as these guys showing up to support my boy that got beat up.”   

“I’m glad it was a positive thing,” said Pima Junior High Principal Lonnie Lunt. “The dad made it positive, and the kids were too. That’s all I care about – making things better.”

The video of he incident hit home for one of the students showing their support who lost his autistic brother at just 10 years of age in an automobile collision. Deyson Williams, a sophomore at Pima High School, said he was incensed when he was shown the video and admonished those laughing about it. He came to the event and spoke with Derek afterward to let him know he has friends.  

Nancy Shotts knows bullying too well. The Shotts family hails from Colorado and lived through the Columbine High School massacre that happened in Littleton, Colorado, where Eric Davis Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold ultimately killed 13 students and one teacher, and wounded 21 others.  

“I think this will help not only my grandson but anyone who is special needs or is being bullied,” Nancy Shotts said.

Nancy called the students at the school who were there to support her grandson “heroes” and said their actions helped Derek be able to not be afraid to go back to school. 

“These are high schoolers who have come to say ‘we support those that can’t protect themselves,’” Nancy said to the gathering. “The bullying has got to stop. You guys are heroes in my eyes.”

Robert Shotts praised the youth who were there to offer their support. They reiterated that they were not looking for retribution or retaliation against the students involved in the altercation. 

“Everybody deserves friends,” Robert said. “Everybody in the world wants happiness. They want peace. You know, they want to feel loved. And you can’t come to school and feel loved if you’re getting beat . . . So, I appreciate you guys coming to support Derek and just to let you know before I end it too, we don’t want no retaliation done on these kids. The law is already involved . . . The parents are all civil . . . We don’t want anybody else getting hurt. We want to fix the problem not blow the problem up.”