OAKLAND PARK, FLA. (WSVN) - A mother says her daughter has been left traumatized and is pleading for help from the school district following a fight that was caught on cellphone video at a high school in Oakland Park.
The mother, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said her daughter has been left in emotional distress after she was pushed into a fight at Northeast High School on Feb. 13.
“My daughter, she’s afraid, she’s terrified, she’s suicidal,” she said. “She has a concussion. Her eye was swollen, and it’s just been hell since that day.”
According to the mother, the bullying of her daughter started before the fight, so she rearranged her school schedule. She said she thought things were getting better up until the fight where she was pushed and kicked.
Her daughter has not been back to school since the fight, and the mother said the school is not giving her the help she needs.
“No one can help me,” she said. “Everyone said, ‘We’ll call you back. We’ll call you back. We’ll call you back.’ No one has called me back yet.”
The mother has since hired Samantha Vacciana, an attorney who saw the video and took the case.
“As a parent, I was horrified,” Vacciana said. “As a lawyer, I was horrified.”
According to the mother, the school and police said the fight was mutual.
“They basically told me if I wanted to press charges against the individuals, my daughter would have to go to jail as well, because it was a mutual fight,” she said.
However, her attorney said the cellphone video proves the fight was not mutual, and she and the mother want the school to protect the teenager.
“Well, that’s impossible because you see her being pushed into the fray,” Vacciana said. “They’ve not done anything to sort of reassure my client that, ‘Listen, when your daughter comes back to school, she’ll be protected.'”
In a statement, a Broward County Public Schools spokesperson said, “After reviewing video surveillance and obtaining witness statements, all students involved received the appropriate disciplinary consequences in accordance with the code of student conduct.”
The mother and her attorney said they are considering filing a lawsuit.
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