The mother of an 11-year-old girl charged in connection with a brutal, video-recorded fight at a Florida middle school says her daughter was not the aggressor—but a child who finally reacted after allegedly enduring weeks of harassment and bullying.
The woman, whose name has not been released to protect her daughter’s identity, said she was devastated that the cafeteria altercation at Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach late last month has resulted in felony charges against her child.
“My daughter, at 11 years old, has to go through this and see herself in the news,” the mother told WPLG while discussing the footage that quickly spread online.
“She’s not a criminal; she’s a child,” she said of her daughter, an honor roll student now facing a second-degree felony aggravated battery charge.
“She made a mistake, but she is a child who felt she needed to defend herself.”
The other girl’s mother said her 11-year-old daughter suffered a concussion during the assault and has been too frightened to return to school.
But the accused student’s mother maintains that her daughter had been the one subjected to bullying and that the family had repeatedly sought help from school officials in the weeks leading up to the confrontation.
“I want to ask the judge not to look only at the video, but also at what happened beforehand—what led to it and why she felt she had to respond this way,” the mother said.
“It’s because my daughter was tired of being harassed and bullied.”
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She acknowledged that the footage was difficult to watch and said she “does not condone it,” but argued that the incident “could have been prevented.”
The girl’s mother also described her as a student with perfect attendance who regularly made the honor roll.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said the case was initially sent to a juvenile diversion program as a misdemeanor battery matter.
Prosecutors later filed a second-degree felony aggravated battery charge after the victim’s mother asked that the case move forward and authorities reviewed the girl’s injuries.
“I was just grateful that she was alive,” the victim’s mother told WPLG earlier this week through tears. “She was struck more than 40 times before anyone intervened.”
An attorney for the injured student has accused the school of failing to protect her, alleging that officials had been warned an “imminent attack” was possible.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools said staff members met with both students before the incident in an effort to calm tensions and prevent the situation from escalating.
“The matter was addressed in accordance with the code of student conduct and referred to law enforcement,” the school district said.
