AKRON, Ohio – The same 14-year-old girl whose arm was reportedly broken by an Akron police officer is now accused of assaulting a teacher at Litchfield Middle School.
The incident happened around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Police said the 14-year-old girl was screaming at a 12-year-old student while chasing him down the hallways. Authorities said she threw a binder at him and missed. That’s when the boy ran into a teacher’s classroom where the teen chased him, knocking down the teacher, according to police.
As the teacher was trying to protect the 12-year-old from the teen, she shoved the teacher and ran out of the classroom, police said.
No one was injured and the girl was released to a family member, after being charged with felonious assault on a teacher and a misdemeanor assault charge for hitting the student.
“We take discipline in our schools seriously,” said Sara Hollander, communications manager for Akron Public Schools in a news release. “Each incident is handled based on the individual facts in each particular case.”
Eddie Sipplen, the girl’s attorney said, “We knew going into this that she was a troubled child. The question is, how do her actions diminish what happened with the officer on Oct. 26? Not at all. Nothing that happened (today) changes the fact that the officer broke her arm.”
On Oct. 26, 2012, the Akron police officer accused of breaking the then 13-year-old’s arm was temporarily removed from Jennings Community Learning Center, where the teen formerly attended. Superintendent David James said the decision didn’t mean the officer did anything wrong.
“But I felt we needed to get all the information sorted out. And we want to make sure that everything runs smoothly at Jennings when students return to school.”
On the school surveillance video, you see the 8th grader being subdued by a school police officer and get pushed against a set of lockers before being placed in an arm lock.
The girl’s attorney said it was his client’s second day at the school on a disciplinary transfer, when according to the officer’s incident report, he claimed to have witnessed the teen cursing and pulling papers off the wall.
Following her arm being broken, the teen was transferred to Litchfield Middle School.
Akron Police Lt. Rick Edwards said the officer was temporarily being reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation. The officer in question is not under any suspension.
