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| Aria Jewitt, beaten by classmate |
A teenage girl, who pummeled a schoolmate in a Jacksonville, Fla., middle school and left her with a fractured skull, has been banned by a court order from attending any public schools in the county.
A Florida appeals court has since suspended the order by Florida circuit Judge Henry Davis, who wrote that the alleged attacker — so far unnamed — "is a threat to all of the children at any school. The injunction is a permanent injunction barring this child from returning to any public school in Duval County."
It was two months ago when the victim, 14-year-old Aria Jewitt, was attacked near the Oceanway Middle school by a female classmate, who slammed the victim's head into a stone wall while about 30 other students watched. The attacker was arrested for aggravated assault.
The event was recorded on a mobile phone, showing how the attacker continued to beat on Jewitt after she had fallen to the ground.
"She had everyone else videotape it," Jewett said according to CBS News.. "She had the girl bring me over there. She probably had this planned."
Jewett said that her attacker has a history of videotaped assaults like this. She claims to have seen five of them, "and she still never got expelled or anything."
The attack has upset the community, but not the school's superintendent.
"I don't think we should use the bad decision that children make outside of school as an example or scapegoat to make a message," Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said, who countered Judge Davis' ruling by saying that public education is a constitutional right.
"I believe the perpetrator should be provided the same opportunity," Vitti said. "It's a tough decision, but my role as superintendent is to support the law."
A lawyer for Jewett's attacker told CBS News in a statement: "Our goal is to return our client, a child, to a public school so she can complete her studies for this academic year."
Labels: aria jewitt, girl banned from county schools, oceanway middle school, school fights
