Three students were arrested and suspended from school
COLUMBUS, miss. (WCBI) – A brawl broke out in the rear of a Columbus school bus on Monday that ended with a girl being pulled out by her hair and three students arrested.
An Instagram video shows the fight that broke out on the bus as it drove down Bluecutt Road to bring students home from class. Jessica Mccaa says her eighth grade daughter Franchesca is the one who got her hair pulled off the bus.
“They dragged her off the bus like she was nothing,” says Mccaa. “Literally trying to harm her.”
Kimberly Gardner, director of Columbus Middle School, said she arrived right after the fight ended.
“My heart was broken to see my students or other students on the school bus involved in such a vicious act,” she says. “However, we did things according to our policies and procedures.”
Columbus Police responded to the scene and arrested three of the students involved in the fight (including Franchesca). All three were released to their parents and suspended from Columbus Middle School for five days.
“I was told they were going to jump on my daughter,” says Mccaa. “I was told they were planning to jump them. That’s why they ended up in the back seat of the bus. “
However, the mother of the seventh grade girl featured on the video fighting Franchesca (who refused to be identified) says the group was actually there to attack her daughter.
“My daughter is the victim,” she says. “I had been told by other students who took the bus that my daughter hadn’t said anything to the girl that morning or evening. The girl (Franchesca) was still picking on my daughter. “
Principal Gardner says this was a community fight that ripped over into the school. She says the investigation into the dispute is ongoing.
“When I tried to go to the different parents to see what was going on, I got a lot of lies from both sides,” the other girl’s mother said of other incidents like the bus fight. “These are small children, young girls and they take everything disproportionately.”
Mccaa told WCBI that she will be withdrawing her daughter from Columbus Middle School on a permanent basis. The mother of the seventh grader says that her daughter will no longer take the bus to school.
