A 13-year-old Arizona boy faces a misdemeanor assault charge after he “relentlessly” targeted his ex-girlfriend during a dodgeball game at his high school.
The authorities accused the teenager of assault when he and his two friends reportedly used dodgeballs to attack the boy’s ex-girlfriend during their gym class at Mayer High School in Spring Valley, leaving the girl with bruises.
Days after the girl was allegedly attacked, a social worker reported to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office that the boys “relentlessly assaulted her with dodgeballs when she came out of the bathroom.”
According to a police report, a hospital admitted the girl with severe bruises on her lower right abdomen and upper right rib cage.
The boy’s mother told AZ Family that she didn’t know the police had questioned her son about the incident at the high school. She only learned about it months later when the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice Center sent her a letter stating that he had been charged with misdemeanor assault.
“I didn’t think a dodgeball would hurt. And these are small ones too. So you can squeeze them and like they compress and stuff,” the boy told AZ Family this week.
‘Obviously I’m going to have to target somebody for dodgeball’
The boy acknowledged that he threw a dodgeball at his ex-girlfriend, admitting that he “did target her a little bit” and “hit her,” while a friend of his “also hit” her and another friend tried and missed, but it wasn’t malicious.
“Obviously I’m going to have to target somebody for dodgeball. It’s dodgeball,” the boy said. “You have to choose somebody, throw the ball, then try to get them out.”
Now, he has to go to court because a judge will hear the case on Aug. 17. The boy’s family said two of the three boys involved will be there to defend themselves.
“It is absolutely ridiculous. This is a game that every kid in the nation plays at some point in their life,” the boy’s mother told AZ Family. “They’re considering the dodgeball a weapon and that he knowingly or willingly, recklessly harmed this girl just playing dodgeball in PE.”