She say she will press charges.
Frederick, Md (KM). A woman who was assaulted along with her 15-year-old daughter has come forward to tell her story. Deani Marks was interviewed Thursday on WFMD’s “Morning News Express.”
During her appearance over the phone, Marks give a time of what happened. She said it all started on Wednesday of last week when her daughter was approached by a group of girls while in the hallway at the school “with some false allegations regarding some supposedly, inappropriate writing on a bathroom wall.” Marks says her daughter didn’t know what they were talking about.
Tensions heated up in the cafeteria during lunch, according to Marks, when her daughter was approached by other girls with a note which she describes as “atrocious, very degrading, vile, disgusting” It then turned into a screaming match in the cafeteria. “My understanding is people were on tables, telling these girls to beat my daughter up,” she says.
The girl went to a vice principle to report it. That person got all the details and asked the girl if she would like to go home. She said yes, and was allowed to leave the school, but without her mother being notified.
The next day, Marks says her daughter was confronted by other girls who asked about the writing on the bathroom wall. The girl called her mother. “I asked her if there is anyway you can make to the office. I can’t mom, they’re coming for me. Then, I lost her on the phone, ” Marks said tearfully. She contacted the school as well as the police. The school called her back to say they had her daughter and she was safe. The girl was allowed to go home with her mother.
When her daughter went to school on Friday, Marks says she heard rumors about a group of students who were planning to beat up her daughter. The girl walked home with some friends for her protection. “It turned into an altercation that initiated as a one-on-one. I can’t count how many of them jumped on top of my daughter. They forced her into another fight,” she says.
Marks says a motorist stopped by and broke up the fight. . “An innocent bystander driving by finally pulled over. It was not in a park. It was on the road. it was on Ballenger Creek Pike, viewable to anybody driving by at that time of day. It’s a very busy area that time of day. There’s multiple schools along that road,” she says.
The fight where she and her daughter were injured occurred on Monday evening.. Marks says a large group of students walked over to her husband’s home in order to confront her daughter and beat her up She went to that community and says she saw about 20-30 Tuscarora High students gathering together. . “When I got out of the car, one of the girls got in my face, was just pushing me out of the way to get to my daughter. And it just got chaotic from there,” she says.
MarKs says a group of girls held her daughter down, jumped on her and kicked her in the head. She says she tried to intervene. “At one point when I did get my hands on a couple of the girls to pull them off, this boy came up and kicked me in my back. So when I stood up, then he pushed me into my car and then which I fell and broke both wrists,” she said.
Both Marks and her daughter were taken to the hospital for treatment. Marks says she’s having surgery on one of her wrists on Friday.
Marks says she plans to take her daughter out of Tuscarora High and have her home schooled. And she does plan to press charges against those students who assaulted her.
Throughout this whole ordeal, Marks says the school’s administration was very sympathetic and supportive. But that was not the case with the principle. “He did not know who we were. His attitude was that I was a bother to his day. He was not interested. He had no answer to any of my questions,” she said.
Marks did say two of the students who harassed her daughter last week were suspended.
The whole story revolved around “inappropriate” graffiti left on a bathroom wall, which turned out to be non-existent. “And they {the school administration} have confirmed with me that they never saw anything written on any bathroom wall,” says Marks. “They had sent a custodian in there and confirmed there was nothing inappropriate written on that wall.”
By Kevin McManus