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Parents take issue with middle school’s handling of assault on their daughter

JAMESTOWN — The parents of a 13-year-old girl said they believe her school could have done more after officials there said she was attacked at school.

The incident occurred at Greeneview Middle School in December.

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News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis was in Jamestown on Thursday night to report what happened when the parents went before the Greeneview Board of Education in search of answers.

“Those of you, and you know who you are, who were in charge or were investigating the situation, I pray that you can go home tonight, lay your head down and sleep thinking you did what was right because you didn’t,” the girl’s mother, Rebecca Hackney, said.

The girl said three other girls attacked her from behind after lunch last fall.

“She was grabbed by her hair, thrown to the ground; A concussion was caused. She was punched in the head, kicked,” Hackney told the board.

She said the school called her more than an hour after the incident as administrators said they were gathering witness statements. Hackney said she thinks that evidence-gathering should have been done sooner.

No one from the school called police, she claimed.

“I could’ve been there with her while she was doing a statement,” Hackney said. Her daughter “had nobody to comfort her.”

Hackney said the principal should be held accountable for her actions: “She runs that building, she’s the boss of that building.”

According to the girl’s father, the three girls accused in the incident have since been charged in Greene County Juvenile Court with delinquency by reason of felonious assault.

One board member who addressed the matter Thursday night said, “The board recognizes that certain actions could have been taken more swiftly and that certain changes have already taken place to provide greater supervision during unstructured times such as lunch.”

The superintendent declined News Center 7′s request for comment, but said the board also would make no comment beyond what was said at the school board meeting.

“You got shut down just like our voices got shut down,” Hackney told News Center 7′s Lewis. “That’s how, when you told me they wouldn’t talk to you, that’s how we feel. These are our children and we have to step up and protect them. They have to feel that.”

News Center 7′s Lewis will have more on this story tonight at 11.


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