Mom Claims Teen in Columbine Hammer Attack Was Bullied
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The mother of a 14-year-old girl, accused of assault after allegedly attacking two other students with a hammer, said today that her daughter was the victim of bullying.
The girl’s mother, identified by KDVR TV only as Liza, said the station that bullying recently had her daughter looking at herself in the mirror and crying. The girl recently asked her, “Mom, do you think I’m ugly,” Liza told the station.
“I’m upset about the fact that they claim that there’s a no tolerance bully policy, when that’s a big Littleton lie,” the teen’s mother told KDVR.
Although the attack is still under investigation, the public information diector at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Jacki Kelly, said that there had been no evidence of the accused student being bullied at the school.
The accused teen, a freshman at the school, had recently enrolled at Columbine from another high school.
The attack happened on Monday morning, when police say the 14-year-old allegedly pulled a hammer and struck a 15-year-old female student. She also allegedly hit a 16-year-old male student who came to his friend’s aid.
Aaron Flowers, the 16-year-old student, told KDVR that prior to the attack the accused teenager threatened to beat him and his friend with a bat.
“[We were] like how are you going to get a bat at Columbine?” Flowers told the station.
Flowers said that he was struck in the hands and the ribs, while the 15-year-old student was struck on her hand. Both students were taken to a hospital for treatment and later released.
The 14-year-old student was arrested and charged with first degree assault. She is currently being held at a juvenile facility.
According to police, one of the school resource officers from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office was able to reach the teenagers within a minute of the incident and stop the attack.
“Whenever something like this happens we do a thorough investigation,” said Lynn Setzer, director of communications at the Jefferson County Public Schools. ” If things need to be changed we change them. We’re always looking to keep our kids safe.”
In 1999 Columbine, located in Littleton, Colo., was the site of the then worst school shooting in U.S. history when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris shot and killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves in the school’s library.
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What exactly is evidence of bullying? Records of the victim telling? Other kids who may have also bullied her or stood by while others did corroborating the claim? My response to either or both is: “yarite!” First option nets more bullying or hidden beatings by “the cool kids.” Second option nets somebody a snitch badge. Funny how school staffers never notice the kid getting picked on until they lash out.
Posted by: CayoKath | February 14, 2012, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
To CAYOKATH
“Funny how school staffers never notice the kid getting picked on until they lash out”.
Exactly my point also.
Posted by: Linda W. | February 14, 2012, 6:36 pm 6:36 pm
A hammer? Doesn’t this child have access to the Web? F for creativity.
Posted by: s | February 14, 2012, 7:00 pm 7:00 pm
How many kids leave a paper trail telling the school what’s happening to them? I remember high school. I had this one boy for an entire month would touch my back, try to reach around to touch my chest, says things about my weight and body IN CLASS and the teacher never did anything… Until the day I was sick of it, turned around, looked him straight in the eyes with my pencil pen in the air and told him I WILL stick you with this if you don’t stop touching me. He touched me. I jabbed him in the thigh with the pencil. This was back in the 80′s. I just got sent to the VP’s office. He looked at my files and asked me what happened. Nothing happened to the other kid. He did stop touching me, though.
Posted by: Steph | February 14, 2012, 7:08 pm 7:08 pm
Of course nothing happened then the school would have to admit a problem. My son committed suicide where bullying was a contributing factor 1/11/2012 . But of course our school does not have a bullying problem. Rip Jarrod Nickell
Posted by: Michele Nickell | February 14, 2012, 8:28 pm 8:28 pm
To CAYOKATH
“Funny how school staffers never notice the kid getting picked on until they lash out”.
Exactly my point also.
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That’s because your average teacher is lazy and doesn’t want to do anything more than their job description calls for. They also don’t want to get sued or confronted by over-zealous parents.
Posted by: SpinDoctor | February 14, 2012, 8:59 pm 8:59 pm
Bullying is a covert activity. Perps get away with it because witnesses “don’t want to get involved,” or are enabling the bullies. With the Internet and vrious social networking sites, unless parents monitor their kids’ activity on their home computers they have no way of knowing what their kids are being subjected to. Teachers don’t have eyes in backs of their heads and classrooms are overcrowded. School administrations are topheavy and members thereof are busy covering their butts, so don’t expect them to get involved or make waves. It’s a no-win situation and usually begins in middle school.
Posted by: amn | February 14, 2012, 9:18 pm 9:18 pm
the public information diector at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Jacki Kelly, said that there had been no evidence of the accused student being bullied at the school.
Jack hasn’t got a clue of what he is talking about. What evidence do you need? You think a student new to this school system is going to come in there and start making false accusations?!! Get a brain, Mr. Kelly, or a different job because you suck at this one.
Why is it the schools don’t create an atmosphere or A BULLY HOTLINE where kids can call in anonymously, report incidents of any kind, give names, dates and what happened without worrying about repercussions? Seems to me the schools only get involved when they are forced to by incidents like this. Until then, the message seems to be to turn a blind eye to what some of the “kids from the best neighborhoods” are doing as they don’t want those kids chances of moving on to a good college damaged or ruined by their little criminal acts in school. Time to let the bullying kids be solely responsiblly for their actions. Sorry this poor girl had to resort to such violence to get attention shown on her plight. I hope she beat the hell out of those two bullies. Lesson they will never forget. Too bad she didn’t cause permanent facial damage. That would have caused them to be bullied the rest of their lives. Sorry folks, but that’s how I feel. I am tired of the criminals being made into victims and the victims being made into criminals because of someone elses actions.
Posted by: fandango | February 14, 2012, 9:52 pm 9:52 pm
This is what happens when bullies pick on the wrong people they get themselves hurt..badly. You can’t defend yourself in High School’s these day’s due to this ridiculous zero-tolerance policy. I remember from personal experience because I was picked on and I felt the same way but never lashed out like they did. Someone picks on you, you have to tell the teacher or authority figure if not and you want to handle the bully yourself you get a ticket and a violence class..sorry to say but I think that’s a bunch of crap..They end up banning weapons at schools and eventually the victim will find another means to get the bully with something else..sad but true. It’s a person’s unalienable right to protect oneself when physically harassed by another person when nobody is around, but not to bring a hammer in to a school and start bashing them to death. Self-defense is very skeptical and looked down upon nowadays. I know because I’ve been to court for fighting my aggressor back with my fists.
Posted by: Trevor | February 15, 2012, 1:07 am 1:07 am
Firsrt of all I am a teacher, and yes these things are hidden by kids very well. However, with that said we are making wussy’s out of the kids by having them tattle to a grown up if someone just looks at them funny or farts in their airspace. I mean, give me a break. And the kids who are really bullied can’t defend themselfs. Most of the time, when I was a kid, it was one good fight and it was over. The kids left each other alone, no more bullying. Yet, with this crap of telling the teacher, we have a bunch of kids who are either snitches or who are silently taking the crap from the bully. KIDS stand up for yourself…even if it gets you suspended!
Posted by: Cheryl | February 15, 2012, 1:22 am 1:22 am
All of this demonstrates what happens to the children who are bullied. The administration is the first in line for the cover-up.
If you are bullied you are punished, please take good care of yourself.
If you are a person who bullies – HOORAY FOR YOU! You and your friends will never have to do anything except continue to be JERKS.
I really, really hope this lady and her daughter sue the life out of the school district- just like they sucked the life out of this innocent child who was just standing up for herself.
ADULTS, SHAME ON YOU!!
Posted by: S Tokerud | February 17, 2012, 8:12 pm 8:12 pm
Did any of you who have posted know about this girls past? The fact she has been arrested before for assualt? The fact that previous schools she has had to be on a behavior contract? Or that fact she went to school drunk with alcohol in her bag (in middle school)? She has had major issues at 4 schools in that past 3 years.
This child was NOT bullied, she was angry. She was brand new to the school due to having to leave her last school due to her behavior not the schools or other children. She went through the entire school to get a weapon why? Because the boy she liked like someone else. That simple she was angry becasue of a boy.
Maybe before you all attack the school and the “bullies” you might want to find out all the facts first.
Posted by: Jen | February 19, 2012, 8:08 pm 8:08 pm
There are some very hateful words here spouted by people who have no experience with this school, to imply that any student would ever deserve to be attacked with a hammer is heartless and an extremely reckless attitude for adults to exhibit!!
The fact of the matter is that the teachers and administrators at Columbine High School are the hardest working educators I’ve ever encountered! Many work 12-14 hours per day everyday to be there to support there students, EVERY student. They are not the lazy incompetent people that these posts have implied.
In reference to the post above, there are indeed several ways to make anonymous reports of bullying throughout all of Jefferson County including Columbine High School and the students are made aware of all of these options. I have a student who graduated from Columbine in 2010 and another student who is currently a sophomore. We have been involved in a situation where an accusation of bullying was made and the well trained staff at Columbine jumped right on it, handled it very well, and put into place an action plan for all students involved to ensure that nothing continued and that the school was a safe comfortable environment for all.
The claims being made that this girl went to her counselor and said that she feared for her safety and was told to just go to class is so far fetched based on real life experiences with this staff. I find it very hard to believe that this could ever happen when I’ve seen how they react to far less serious issues! Furthermore, there are video cameras in every hallway at Columbine including the one where the incident took place and the one right in front of the counselor’s office, only after the Sheriff Department reviewed these tapes did they decide to charge this student with 2nd degree assault.
Unfortuantely there are kids out there who are being bullied and need to be able to turn to a staff to support them. How horrible is it that there are also very troubled individuals that automatically turn to the excuse of “I was bullied” as a means of getting out of a situation that they created? These false claims create a witch hunt against educators that work very hard such like the ones at Columbine and it also creates a syndrome of the” boy who cried wolf” and takes attention away from the kids who are actually being bullied!
Posted by: Chrystal | February 20, 2012, 7:16 pm 7:16 pm