Working for a living can be a drag, but at least it still beats high school, right? Here's what you missed at the Eximius Preparatory Academy cafeteria the other day: ABC 7 obtained video showing an epic brawl that started when one 15-year-old girl confronted a group of classmates who were bullying her. Instead of hugging it out, they turned on her savagely, and she retreated up to the top of a cafeteria table as they swarmed around her like hyenas. As ABC 7 reports (the two-minute mark), two NYPD school safety agents enter the room as the riot erupts, and at no point do you see them intervene.
As you can see, the unidentified girl was dragged to the floor and beaten, and when a friend tried to help her, she was also punched and kicked—even after she tried to hide under the table. ABC 7 doesn't say anything about serious injuries, but three girls were arrested on misdemeanor assault, riot and disorderly conduct charges. "The school cafeteria people pulled me away," says the girl who was assaulted. "I don't know [where the school officers were]." She was suspended for five days, and says she won't be going back to Eximius, which is in the Bronx. (But she'll be missing out on so much school spirit!)
In a statement, NYPD officials said school safety agents are supposed to intervene during fights and have the power to make arrests, and they're investigating what happened in this incident. The mother of the victim, Tjuana Thomas, asks of the NYPD, "I thought you were there to protect the children?" Well, that and filling their monthly doodling arrest quota.
