Prosecutors have filed criminal battery charges against a 15-year-old who was seen in a video repeatedly punching a 9-year-old girl on a school bus in Miami-Dade.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced Tuesday that the charges would be filed in juvenile courts.
The incident happened on Feb. 1 on a bus from Coconut Palm K-8 Academy in Homestead and was caught on cellphone video.
The footage that was posted on social media showed a group of students arguing before the older boy started beating the 9-year-old girl. A second student was seen joining in on the vicious attack.
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The 15-year-old admitted to investigators that he struck the girl several times in the head because she got into an altercation with his brother, according to an arrest report.
"Just conversating about it, she got a little emotional and didn’t want to speak anymore," said the girl's mother, who only wanted to be identified as Jenni. "She has self-blame and fear from the situation. It's just a lot of trauma to heal and it's a process for us here at home."
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The 15-year-old was initially given a civil citation, also known as a written arrest, but Fernandez Rundle said that a more serious charge was warranted.
"The February 1, 2023, school bus video of a 15-year-old boy pummeling a 9-year-old girl, clearly shows that this beating was far more serious than a simple student altercation. The school’s police officer who investigated the matter had the discretion to issue a civil citation, as the officer did here, or make an arrest for misdemeanor battery," Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "We believe that, based on the evidence and the circumstances, the use of a civil citation was incompatible with the level of violence displayed by the 15-year-old against his much younger and smaller victim. As a result, we have filed criminal battery charges with our juvenile courts."
Miami-Dade County Public Schools officials said the students involved would be disciplined according to the code of student conduct.
"I'm just hoping that he received the rehabilitation that he needs," Jenni said. "The amount of aggression he did toward my daughter, I thought was unnecessary."
The second student in the attack was also given a citation. It's unknown whether he will also face criminal charges.
The girl’s mother said it started as a verbal argument and escalated.
"This needs to be taken care of right away. Our children are in danger at school where we are trusting other people to do their jobs," she said. "That’s not justifiable. It doesn’t matter what was said. Our kids need to learn that through violence nothing is resolved."
