Help! my daughter was assaulted by an older girl. need legal advice.

Pippi

Pippi

my stockings are short
Mar 26, 2006
2,147
3
#1
You all seem to have such good advice, and I'm not sure how to go about pressing charges, etc.

Here's what happened. My 8th grade daughter (age 13) was spending the night at a friend's house last night, and a high school girl, who was jealous because the boy she had been seeing dumped her to "go with" my daughter. The girl and a bunch of her friends went over to my daughter's friend's house, and started threatening her, then the one girl started punching my daughter in the face and head. She managed to break away and run into her frined's house and lock the doors and call the police. Officers came and a medic checked my daughter out, and a report was filed. What I need to know is how do I go about pressing charges against this girl? Do I need to hire a lawyer? I'm so upset!
 
#2
And earlier in the day this girl was sending threatening text messages to my daughter (she saved them). My daughter went to the principal and told him, but he just told her to lay low, and talk to him more about it after the holiday weekend. I was never called by the school about this!
 
#3
I would think you need to make a full police report. Take photos of any bruises, and save all threatening messages,( That's considered harassment.) Have you spoken to the other girls parents ? I'm very sorry this happened to you and your daughter.
 
#4
DEFINATELY contact the girls parents.......thats the very first thing you should do.If they arent helpful,Contact the police and ask them what is being done. THEN asap contact your daughters school..ask for a meeting ASAP.....They 100% should have called you re:this...They were negligent not to inform you!
 
#5
If the police took a report, it will be automatically referred to the local DA for review so that the decision to pursue charges can be made. Did you get the police report number? If so, you can call the police precinct and ask to talk to the officer assigned to that case. I would NOT contact the parents as this could be construed as harassment and could potentially harm your case. If this child is in a school in the area, you need to notify school officials and also discuss a criminal no-contact order with the DA/City attorney. I am not an attorney but this is the best advice I can give you at this time. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.
 
#6
A similar situation happend to one of my brother's recently. You should talk to the parents of the other girl, and if you feel it is necessary continue with the police. It is not ok for that to happen- and this is a 13 year old, this is ridiculous. I hope she is doing ok, and you too
 
#7
A crime was committed, assualt. Please contact the police and tell them you want to file a juvie criminal report. Even if they act as if this is a "silly teen" issue it is their job to take and file the report. This type of behavior will continue to escalate if allowed to go unnoticed. I might hesitate to contact the parents, perhaps the police could advise you on that..Oh yeah and all that Roo said!!!
 
#8
The older girl is obviously troubled. You would do her a disservice to ignore this behavior. She needs help, and will only get it if people other than her parents are involved. Good luck to all of you.
 
#9
I'm so sorry this happened to you and your daughter Pippi. But like the other ladies have said definately take pictures of your daughter's injuries, save the harrassing text messages, call the other girls parents, and call the principle once school starts. Good luck with this whole ordeal, and I hope you and your daughter feels better soon! :flowers:
 
#10
Unless you are a parent and have personally been in this situation..Its hard to comment at all...It can NOT hurt to contact the parents..I had a problem with a boy bothering my daughter(...he was 18..Mine was 14!!)...I not only talked and resolved the issue with the parents..I ended up becoming friends with the mom as well...They were horrified and had NO clue their son was trying to date a 14 year old girl...Give the parents the benefit of the doubt and call them.If they are nasty..then you can contact the police.......I wish you luck..I hope your daughter is OK..Make sure you also call the schools guidance dept. to watch after your daughter at school as well....
 
#11
We experienced a similar situation with our (now) 20 y.o. being harassed and physically assaulted by another girl who had some grievance over ours talking to a boy she liked. We were advised by the police not to confront the parents about the behavior because both parties are emotional and defensive for their children and the police told us that in their experience it often made situations worse. Sometimes it is better to let the police or school officials handle it as they are neutral third parties who wield some authority and also because conversations will be documented so that claims of misconduct can't be made later.
 
#12
#1)March into the school and make the principal file a report about the situation. Pending where you live, the way they go about it may be different. You NEED this documented. It should go into the girl's permanent school file. IT IS BULLYING...and you have to take it serious. ALso, let the principal know how unhappy you were that you were not notified immediately about the situation. You have to do both of these...it is really important.

#2)Make sure you follow up with police and that you have a report on what happened. (including your feelings and about the text messages) It is up to you if you want to press charges, but make sure you make a followup report.

#3)Save all text messages and anyting else. Don not talk to her parents. I would also advise your daughter to stay away from this young man in school. She does not have to make it obvious they are together. School is out soon and she can see him this summer.
 
#13
Sometimes the schools are reluctant to get involved if the incident took place off school grounds. In our case, my stepdaughter was cornered by this girl in the women's restroom at a local movie theater, thrown to the ground and kicked in the face. The police and EMS people were called, the other girl arrested, and our daughter needed dental restoration due to damage to her front teeth (this happened 4 years ago). The girl who was responsible as it turns out had a history of bullying others and was put on juvenile probation and forced to attend anger management classes.

The girl had been bothering our daughter for about three weeks at school prior to this but we'd advised her to ignore what was going on and had hoped it would blow over. Right before this incident the girl had started sending harassing emails to our daughter as well (we never figured out how she got her email address.)

According to the DA in our case, the girl's parents were totally hostile and unresponsive. We considered trying to recover the money from the parents for the dental work but decided it was just not worth it. Not long after that, the same girl was expelled from school for fighting. The ironic thing is that my stepdaughter was not even interested in the boy in question. She told us not long after this happened that she is oriented towards women and still is (which is not an issue for us!).. However, THAT is probably TOO MUCH INFO and for another thread!!

Needless to say, having teenagers is NEVER DULL!
 
#14
I agree that you should definitely preserve all evidence of the assault and battery looks like both happened in this situation. I also tend to agree with Jill in this situation contact parents, then school if that doesn't work then lawyer if you are still dissatisfied with the resolution or there hasn't been one! Good luck!!
 
#15
If it is off the school grounds, you can't bring a claim against the school. Well, it would be harder to do so

Against the girl, save everything. All voicemail, all text messages, get people to give reports to the police. Take pictures and everything. Make sure to keep a detailed account (write everything down) - including all conversation, all harassment, and so on
This would help in criminal charges and the city will take on this.

Regarding civil charges, this will depend on the amount of money that you will be suing for. You may be able to do small claims court. So you may want to be aware of these options


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And, I would say: Do NOT talk to the parents of the assaulter. I don't think it would help much and you may give them your information that may be valuable to your case.
 
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