A Miami Beach mother is demanding answers and has hired a lawyer after her 11-year-old daughter was attacked in the cafeteria of Nautilus Middle School.
Cellphone video recorded inside the school captured the start of the assault at a cafeteria table on Sept. 24. In the footage, a student appears to lunge at another girl, wrap an arm around her head and strike the 11-year-old repeatedly in the head.
The victim's mother said the school nurse called to tell her that her daughter had been in a fight. She went straight to the campus. "I drove to the school, I got there as soon as possible and that's basically when our nightmare started, with my daughter being violently assaulted and struck over 40 times on her head," she said.
The mother believes the attack grew out of a dispute over the school's cheerleading team. She said her daughter tried out a few days earlier and made the squad, while the other girl was not selected. "It was an achievement, she was happy, and the child, the aggressor child was rejected," she said.
Gina Raijman, the attorney representing the family, said the school already knew about growing tension between the two students. She argued that administrators failed to respond adequately and that the attack could have been prevented.
"The school was placed on notice of an escalating incident between students and, despite having this knowledge, they failed to act appropriately to prevent this foreseeable attack," Raijman said. "This was a fundamental failure of the school's duties to protect students on campus."
Miami-Dade County Public Schools offered a different account of the lead-up. In a statement, the district said officials were working to resolve the conflict between those students before the fight. "Prior to the incident, school staff had met with the students involved in an effort to de-escalate the conflict," the statement said.
The district added that school administrators and Miami-Dade Schools Police responded immediately when the altercation took place. It said the matter was handled under the code of student conduct and referred to law enforcement.
The victim has not returned to school since the attack. The student accused of carrying it out has been charged with aggravated battery and is expected to appear in juvenile court on Thursday.
