News/Commentary

Mom of 9-yr-old girl beaten on Florida school bus shares video of son in same scenario one week earlier

February 9, 2023 | | Print Article

The mother of the 9-year-old Florida girl who was brutally beaten on the school bus has revealed that just one week before the video of her daughter went viral, her son was also pummeled in the very same way.

The mother, identified as “Jenni,” told DailyMail.com that she wants “justice to be done” for her children who she says are being bullied because they are new to Coconut Palm K-8 Academy in Homestead, Florida.

As American Wire News reported, the young siblings were allegedly assaulted by two older students who punched her son, knocking him down, before attacking his younger sister.

The young girl was repeatedly hit in the head as her fellow students looked on.

https://twitter.com/FightHaven/status/1621355165411586048?s=20&t=6i5jfh7GFXseoNWPpfxxcA

One week prior, it was the little boy who was allegedly the target of the bullies’ wrath, and, as with the attack on his sister, the incident was caught on camera.


(Video: DailyMail.com)

According to Jenni, the family had been homeless in the weeks leading up to the assaults, due to the loss of jobs. The mother of four set up a GoFundMe and had only recently been able to move into a new apartment close to the school.

Since enrolling her three oldest kids in the school, Jenni says they have had “nothing but problems.”

“We have had to get my daughter another appointment with the concussion department, but it is a real struggle because they are booked for the year,” Jenni told the Daily Mail. “She has had constant headaches, a lot of nausea. She is not herself and she is not sleeping a lot which could be linked back to the emotional trauma she has suffered.”

“It’s all very overwhelming,” she admitted. “We are going into this situation from one where we were homeless, and we were finally able to get into a place and transition the kids into school.”

“We have been there just a little more than a month, and this is just devastating,” she continued. “My husband has been forced to miss work and he doesn’t get PTO but he obviously wants to be there for our kids. It is putting us back into a hard situation, we need to hire lawyers for this and help raise money for medical care and legal help.”

Following an investigation by school police of the attack on the little girl, a 15-year-old boy suspected of repeatedly punching her in the head was issued a civil citation.

According to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, a citation is “not enough.”

“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,” Fernandez Rundle said Tuesday, according to the New York Post. “As a result, we have filed criminal battery charges with our juvenile courts.”

Jenni says she feels for the teen’s parents, but her children need “justice.”

“As a mother, I feel for them. Their own child is facing charges, but a lesson has to be learned and responsibility has to be taken,” she told the Daily Mail. “My daughter has so much life left to live, for this to happen to her. Justice does need to be served because this happened to both of my children. We are hoping that people can learn a lesson from this worldwide.”

Jenni says she will now be homeschooling her children.

“It is very sad how we have just overcome one thing, and another thing like this comes up right away,” she said. “We are just here trying to be a happy family. Despite everything, that is what the kids deserve.”

 

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles