“She called me the n-word and she called me a punk,” says Darshaun RocQuemore Simmons, 15, of Stephanie Sebby-Strempel, 38. While RocQuemore Simmons prefers to be called “DJ,” Sebby-Stremple’s attack on him last month has earned her the nickname “Pool Patrol Paula.”
DJ and his parents spoke with Michelle Miller of CBS This Morning, in his first interview since the June 24 incident at a South Carolina subdivision pool. The family asserts that they believe Sebby-Strempel’s actions were racially motivated; though DJ and his friends were invited guests of another subdivision resident, they never even got a chance to get their feet wet before being accosted.
”This lady walked up to us and was like, ‘y’all have to leave.’ We said ‘yes ma’am.’ When I started walking out, she just started hitting me. It was shocking.”
“Shocking” doesn’t even begin to describe it. The video was so upsetting that DJ actually waited a day to show it to his parents, out of fear for their mental health—the family was reeling from a death in the family just days before.
DJ’s mom, Deanna RocQuemore, states what should be the obvious when she points out that she “could never imagine putting (her) hands on somebody else’s child.”
Sebby-Strempel appears to have no such self-restraint.
DJ’s father, Bryan Simmons, voiced angry concern about the inaction of bystanders. “All of those adults there and there was nobody to step up and stop this lady and say, ‘hey, why are you hitting this young man?’” If you haven’t seen the video yet, take a look. Nobody—in the water or on the ground—gets involved while this woman chases after DJ, screaming at him, and hitting him.
Nobody. He’s completely on his own.
When Miller asked DJ why he began recording, he explained that he was worried that “it could end up flipped around” and he wouldn’t be believed. Unsurprisingly, he’s correct—in a statement to CBS, Sebby-Strempel’s attorney claimed that "There certainly are two sides to every story."
That’s true, Counselor, but one side involves hitting a child and shouting racial slurs. That side should be punished.
Sebby-Strempel, who lost her “job” at the MLM skincare company Rodan + Fields, and literally bit police officers when they came to arrest her, is currently out on $65,000 bail. She’s next due in court on August 13, and faces a maximum of 30 days in jail for assaulting DJ. Her first court date for biting her arresting officers is August 27.
As for DJ, he’s in counseling, and trying to scrape together some sort of positive lessons from being attacked by a crazed white woman. Sadly, the young man—whose birthday was the day before the incident—knows that this might not be the last time he finds himself in such a situation.
“I learned how to handle it again, if I have to deal with it. I have a lot of discipline and self-control.”