Nationwide — Summer Smith, the African American mom whose teenage son, SeMarion Humphrey, was tricked into drinking urine at a birthday sleepover, has been ordered to pay $3.2 million to the white teen she allegedly called a racist bully. The jury ruled her claims caused severe emotional distress and invaded the teen’s privacy.
In 2021, Asher Vann, then an eighth-grader in Plano, Texas, was caught on video with classmates during a birthday sleepover playing pranks on SeMarion Humphrey. The video showed the teens tricking Humphrey into drinking his own urine.
Smith publicly accused Vann of racially motivated bullying, claiming he and his friends used slurs and even shot her son with a BB gun. Her posts attracted national attention, with calls for the teens to be punished. Police investigated but never arrested or charged anyone.
Now 19 and in college, Vann said the incident was not about race. “This wasn’t me doing a racist act. This isn’t me hating someone because of their skin color. This was me at an immature stage of my life at a sleepover for my birthday, doing immature, dumb things,” he said. “It was immature. It was stupid. It was nasty. But that’s not who I am, and that’s not me today.”
Vann filed a lawsuit, arguing that Smith’s social media campaign ruined his life. The jury agreed, awarding him $3.2 million in damages, according to the New York Post.
Smith said she plans to appeal and defended her actions as protecting her son. “I never wanted anyone to threaten anyone at the school or anything. I simply wanted them to be held accountable in the proper way,” she said, though she acknowledged Vann faced public abuse over the years.
Vann admitted the case left a lasting mark. “There was no winner in the end,” he said. “Things are getting better. But I don’t feel like I am who I should’ve been at this age because of that.”