The mother of a 12-year-old girl who was pulled from her wheelchair and beaten in a horrific attack fears the bully will only get a slap on the wrist.
Footage of two disturbing attacks on the 12-year-old in the bathroom and an elevator at Orlando’s Conway Middle School appeared on Instagram last week.
They show her being dragged around like a rag doll and pushed onto the cold tile floor during an attack filmed by a fellow student, also 12 years old.
The victim’s mother, Myisha Hall, met with the principal, school district staff and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Friday morning.
But she told DailyMail.com that while they finally acknowledged the attack after a week of downplaying it, they refused to say how the bully would be punished.
The girl’s mother said she was furious and distraught that her daughter (left) was attacked and the footage was posted on Instagram.
The gruesome video starts with the victim on her knees before the other girl grabs her head and pushes it onto the bathroom floor
“I feel like it’s going to be a slap on the wrist, but it has to be more. “We all know an attack happened when we saw the video,” she said.
‘I told them I was not satisfied. How do I know if justice has been done?’
Hall’s daughter suffers from a rare spinal condition and has undergone six operations since the age of five. She was told that she would not live longer than 10 years.
Hall said officials initially claimed the girls told them it was just “horseplay” and that there was no crime because there was no victim.
“For abuse to be determined, there must be a victim, and all parties interviewed said the same thing: that they often ‘fight’ all day at school,” the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
But Hall explained at the meeting that her daughter suffered scrapes and bruises during the two attacks and was given an ice pack by staff.
Another video provided to DailyMail.com shows Hall’s daughter in her wheelchair surrounded by other girls who harassed her.
“Don’t hit me,” she said, waving her hand in protest, followed by what looked like a scuffle between their hands.
The girl is thrown across the room in a full circle after the larger student grabs her arm
The girl, reportedly the same one who attacked her in the bathroom and elevator, said she then threatened her.
“I’ll hit the brakes on that wheelchair, I don’t care,” she said.
Messages between the girls showed that the attacker sent her dozens of voice messages on Instagram mocking her hair and wishing she would die.
“You stupid, you stupid, you so annoying – I hope you get hit by a big bus and die, and I’ll laugh at your funeral,” one message read.
Another said: ‘I’m going to put the brakes on this girl, I’m not playing.’
A third message read: ‘I hope you roll down the hill and die.’
The girl also mocked her with ‘bald spots’ on her head and challenged her to post an earlier bullying video online.
“At least I look good in the video, unlike you,” she said.
Hall said the video and messages, plus what her daughter eventually told her about the history of the girls’ relationship, showed a pattern of bullying.
She said the school and police began to take the attackers seriously after she exposed them.
“They miss the fact that my daughter is disabled, she is defenseless and will have to endure this for the rest of her life,” she said.
“This is a crime, she’s a victim…I’m disgusted.”
Hall said she felt the school had failed her daughter and she wouldn’t go back there unless the girl was expelled, and probably not even then.
She also said she would press charges against the girl who attacked her daughter, and told police at the meeting.
Hall said the principal admitted that the girl had bullied and harassed her daughter, and that he would receive level 3 and 4 punishments for each act.
However, she said the school refused to tell her what the punishment would be.
Orange County Public Schools Discipline response code states that a Level 4 violation, the highest, could involve expulsion.
“Maximum ten-day suspension with a recommendation for expulsion (mandatory),” it said, alongside a list of other punishments.
Bullying was defined as “the systematic and chronic infliction of physical harm or psychological distress on one or more students or employees.”
‘Bullying involves intimidating behavior that is repetitive and intentional and creates an imbalance of power.’
Harassment and simple assault were classified as Level 3 offenses, which include a suspension and other penalties.
The school did not respond to a request from DailyMail.com for clarification on what the punishment would be.
The gruesome video starts with the victim on her knees. One of the bullies grabs her head and pushes her onto the bathroom floor.
The disabled girl tries to get up and retaliate, but the much larger attacker grabs her arm and swings her across the room.
She tries to fight back again, but is pushed against the wall as the attacker and the filming girl laugh hysterically.
The girl may eventually stumble back into her wheelchair.
Seemingly proud of her cruelty, the girl who posted the images added the caption: “I will fight with SB in the wheelchair.”
The elevator attack video shows the disabled girl being abused by the small space and repeatedly punched until she can get back into her wheelchair.
‘I feel sick when I see that video. I keep thinking about what if she was paralyzed or never woke up?’ Hall told DailyMail.com on Thursday.
‘I’m angry and disappointed, how can I drop my daughter off every day without wondering what could happen? She’s defenseless, she can’t walk.’
‘I see her on her knees praying to God to make her ‘normal’.
The elevator attack video shows the disabled girl being abused by the small space and repeatedly punched until she can get back into her wheelchair.
Hall said she first became aware of the attack when another parent saw the video on Instagram and contacted her.
The girl’s father, who has custody over the weekend, then contacted her to say a parent had also told him and that he was on his way to pick her up.
He entered the school and explained what had happened to the school administrators, neither of whom contacted him.
When Hall finally spoke to her daughter, she was with the girl who attacked her – who picked up the phone and claimed they were just playing.
‘I told her that my daughter was in a wheelchair for a reason and that they couldn’t play like that. But I was deceived,” she explained.
She soon discovered that other videos of sickening attacks on her daughter were circulating online, along with threatening messages and messages.
When she asked her daughter about the attacks, she revealed that she had been bullied for weeks.
‘She said, ‘Mom, they do this to me all the time.’
‘It hurts me because I didn’t know my daughter was going through this. She needs to feel safe and protected and not be afraid to tell people.”
Hall said she was angry that the school did nothing about the bullying and didn’t tell her about the attack before she saw it on social media.
“I’m furious, I haven’t slept or eaten in days,” she said.
‘It’s scary that she went through this and no one at school did anything about it. If they had done that at the beginning, this wouldn’t have happened.
The 12-year-old was attacked in the bathroom and elevator of Conway Middle School (pictured) in Orlando
‘Disabled children need to be cared for all day and they should have informed me from the start.
‘Both the school and the girls who did this are treating it as a joke. It’s not, and it’s not horseplay: it’s bullying and abuse.”
Principal Joshua Bing sent a message to parents saying the school immediately opened an investigation.
“The school administration is aware of several students who have been involved in a number of extremely disturbing altercations that have occurred on campus,” he said.
The girl suffers from chondrodysplasia punctata, a rare condition.
Her genetic defects include shorter femurs and one of her legs is shorter than the other.
The condition can include skeletal abnormalities, distinctive facial features, intellectual disability and breathing problems.