Bully's attack lands teen in hospital

Bully's attack lands teen in hospital

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By Susan Harding and KATU Web Staff

KELSO, Wash. - The mother of a 13-year-old attacked by a bully at her middle school said she wants other parents to realize their kids could be terrorizing others.

Tammy Patterson, said she wishes parents would talk to their kids to see if they are being bullied or are bullying others. "Parents just don't want to believe their kid could be doing this to another kid," she said.

Her daughter, Jessica, ended up in the hospital recently after a girl assaulted her at Huntington Middle School in Kelso. The eighth grader had received threats and harassing phone calls from several students for weeks. On the day of the attack, she tried to sneak in the school's back door but was jumped by a girl and once inside, was slammed against a locker and punched.

"She hit me in the eye with her ring and she took my hair and threw me up against the wall," Jessica said. The bullies threatened to hurt her more if she reported the incident. "They told me they were going to get me twice as bad if I told," she said, "so it was really hard to tell on them."

"It terrifies you," said Tammy Patterson. "You get a call from school that you're kid has been beat up; it just hits you in the stomach."

School officials are now letting Jessica arrive late and leave early to avoid running into other students outside. However, that does not make her feel any safer. "It's probably just making them even more mad 'cause I got them in trouble," she said.

The principal at Huntington Middle School did not want to talk on camera, but the school district did tell KATU News they consider this gang-like behavior.  They said they do know that several students are involved and their punishment could range from being suspended to being expelled.

 

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