DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A Daytona Beach mother is filing charges after she says two high school students tripped her daughter and then posted a video of it to social media.
- TikTok video show two students tripping another student
- Family of the student who was tripped is pressing charges
- Police said Monday that teens charged with misdemeanors
The incident happened in a hallway at Seabreeze High School last Thursday.
Adrianne King claims she got a heads up from her oldest daughter that day that something had happened at school to her 15-year-old learning disabled sister. When she confronted her daughter, she explained that two girls, who seemingly were her friends, asked her to make a TikTok video.
“She thought they were just doing something silly or whatever but then they told her, 'OK we want you to jump,' and so she jumped and they kicked her feet out from under her and she fell,” King said.
It wasn’t until later that King saw the video for herself.
“I was so upset I went from being concerned about her to mad,” King said. “Like how can kids do other kids this way?”
She said she went straight to administration the next day to address the issue. We are not identifying the teens involved because they are minors.
“I assumed that it was going to be… you know… 'Oh, don’t worry,' because this is what I got. 'We are, you know, going to look into everything and we are going to make sure that these girls are held accountable for what they did,' so I was like, 'Oh, OK. All right.'“
King showed Spectrum News 13 Volusia School district documents which confirm that her daughter has a learning disability. Although she attends regular classes, her mom said she gets other help.
School administration declined our request to comment on the case, but earlier this week the principal addressed it during the morning announcements, which were later posted on YouTube.
“The students have received the appropriate consequences for their actions," Joseph Rawlings said. He continued, “It is now time to move on as a school.”
But King isn’t ready to move on and wants more action. We asked the school what punishment they handed down but were told that’s protected information.
“I don’t want it downplayed, and that's how it was like, kind of, 'Hmmmm.' That's the feel I got from my meeting,” King said.
In his YouTube video, the Seabreeze principal also said these tripping videos have been reported in other schools. He warned other kids who do things like this could also face disciplinary action.
“For me it's bigger, because I feel like when you don’t give consequences to children, it gives them a license to do it again,” King said.
Daytona Beach Police said Friday they're filing a report with the State Attorney’s Office. On Monday, the department said the teens are being charged with misdemeanor battery (touch/strike) and cyberbullying.