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High school basketball player with epilepsy taunted at Indiana game

Posted at 9:31 AM, Dec 02, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-02 11:47:01-05

INDIANAPOLIS — A video of a student taunting a player with epilepsy at an Indiana high school basketball game Friday night has gone viral on social media.

During the match between Center Grove High School and Cathedral High School, James Franklin Jr. was taking a free throw shot when a kid fell on the floor and started shaking like he was having a seizure, James Franklin Jr.'s mom, Tamieka Franklin, said. 

"To see that last night [Friday] was totally disgusting," Tamieka Franklin said. "Very hurtful."

 

Because of the seizures James Franklin Jr. was having, at one point he was taking 11 medications a day. But that wasn’t working — so he needed to have surgery.

He underwent a successful surgery performed by Dr. Jody Smith in August 2017 at Riley Children's Hospital to control the seizures.

“If they knew what it is like to not be able to drive,” James Franklin Jr. said. “Not to be able to go anywhere by yourself, be left alone, can't even use the restroom without closing the door. You wouldn't make a mockery of such a thing."

In a tweet, Center Grove High School said the incident does not represent their school.

The Indiana High School Athletic Association said in a tweet that they are in communication with administrations at both schools.

Tamieka Franklin says the student involved in the mocking has apologized to her son.