14-Year-Old Bully Banned From Schools in County After Beating Student (VIDEO)
A judge in Duval County School District, Fla. banned a 14-year-old girl from attending any school within the county limits. The girl reportedly beat several students and left one unconscious.
Aria Jewett was attacked by the 14-year-old bully, who slammed Jewett's head against a wall. She suffered a basal skull fracture and concussion, police reports stated.
"I tried to walk away," Jewett told CBS News. "I didn't even know it was coming. She had everyone else videotape it. She had the girl bring me over there. She probably had this planned."
"I got there before the paramedics, and I was just hysterical," her mother, Melissa Thomas told News4Jax. "I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I was just grateful that my child was alive. She couldn't say her name or her birthday, and they were really concerned about that. She really wasn't responding; she wasn't really talking much or anything like that."
The bully was arrested and charged with felony battery. Judge Henry Davis decided to ban the student from attending any school within the county, granting the request of Jewett's family, who worried their daughter would be back in the same school with her attacker.
"Children should be safe at school," Davis told First Coast News. "There is no excuse for what is taking place in our schools. Parents and students need to understand there are consequences to engaging in certain behaviors. Certainly bullying and beating your classmates will have consequences."
"She was a serial bully, and she would not only beat kids up– the weaker kids, or the kids who were pretty or whatever– but she would videotape it. So kids knew whenever the video cameras came out and she was around, that she was about to jump one of her victims," Jewett's attorney, John Phillips, explained.
However, there are those who feel Judge Davis' decision is too extreme for the situation.
"I don't think we should use the bad decision that children make outside of school as an example or scapegoat to make the message. I believe the perpetrator should be provided the same opportunity. It's a tough decision, but my role as superintendent is to support the law," Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told CBS.
"Our goal is to return our client, a child, to a public school so she can complete her studies for this academic year," the attacker's lawyer told CBS.
Watch footage of the case here: