INDIANAPOLIS – There is a sense of disappointment and frustration for a Perry Township family after the student accused of assaulting their son at school in September received a suspended sentence Wednesday.
“You’ve got kids going to school and teachers going to school and they come out on a stretcher and they go into an ambulance at the end of the day,” described attorney Tammy Meyer, who is one of the attorneys representing the victim and his family. “This has got to stop.”
The 15-year-old Perry Meridian High School student was severely injured in the assault. Images shared by family attorneys showed significant cuts and bleeding across the teen’s face after the incident.
“He is facing lifelong injuries,” described attorney Catherine Michael, one of the other attorneys representing the victim and his family. “Healing that is going to take quite a while. He hasn’t been able to go back to school.”
According to family attorneys, the student had been the target of ongoing bullying. They also said the assault in September was unprovoked and will likely require long-term medical and psychiatric care.
Police arrested the accused attacker at the time. Now two months later, a judge decided to suspend his sentence with no time in juvenile detention.
The suspect will have an ankle monitor and be required to attend anger management classes. Attorneys for the victim said that is not enough.
“It’s awful what these children, who are almost adults, are doing and getting away with it,” Meyer said. “And for this particular perpetrator, he was out of juvenile detention before our child was out of the hospital and that’s a wrong message to send.”
Meyer and Michael said they are frustrated and disappointed with the juvenile justice system. They also argue Perry Township Schools has not been held accountable.
“This child is not the first child to be assaulted in that school and if things don’t change pretty dramatically, they’re not going to be the last child,” Michael said.
Last March, a substitute teacher at Perry Meridian High School was also assaulted by a student in a disturbingly similar way. Attorneys for the 15-year-old assault victim said other families have begun reaching out and coming forward with similar stories about violence at Perry Township Schools.
“Until we see some big changes by the school, other students in the school aren’t going to feel safe and they [perpetrators] think they can get away with it,” Meyer said.
Attorneys and the family of the injured student said they are calling on the district to take immediate action to address the “systemic issues” that contribute to ongoing violence at Perry Meridian High School. They also said they are calling upon the legal system to “hold accountable those who fail in their duty to protect vulnerable individuals in educational settings.”
FOX59/CBS4 reached out to Perry Township Schools for a statement and has not yet heard back as of this article’s publication.
