Local

Hough High mother concerned after daughter allegedly attacked

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Three students at Hough High School could face charges after Cornelius police investigated reports of assaults and racial slurs.

The mother of a 15-year-old girl told Channel 9 the students who tormented her daughter were briefly suspended. However, she said those same students who attacked her daughter were later allowed to go right back into her classroom.

"She was spit on, she was called the N-word, and nasty racist things," the mother said.

To protect the girl's identity, Channel 9 isn't naming her or her mother.

The mother told Channel 9 the vicious attacks started with spitting, and escalated to the point when a classmate threw a gym ball at her face.

"She had to end up in the hospital last week with a facial contusion, a concussion," she said.

The school promised they'd take care of the students, but after brief suspensions, she said the teens who hurt her daughter showed up right back in class beside her vulnerable 15-year-old, according to the mother.

"What was a bubbly, spirit-filled young lady is now to an area where all she wants to do is sleep," she said.

Eyewitness News reporter Mark Barber pushed Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for answers four times, asking what they're doing to protect students at Hough High.

The district responded by saying in part:

"Reports of bullying at any CMS school are taken very seriously…. Federal student privacy laws prohibit the district from sharing specific information regarding any student."

The 15-year-old's mother isn't satisfied with that answer because she said her daughter is terrified to go to school and her health is suffering.

"They did do a suicide assessment on her yesterday where she talked to her, and said she's going to watch her closely," she said.

The mother said she will give the school time to press charges against the students. If they don't, she said she will take that action to protect her daughter.

The school has filed police reports for two cases of assault and once case of cyberbullying.

In two of them, the suspects are juveniles, so the district attorney is deciding if the teens will face charges.

In the third case, the suspect is 18, so the school or the mother can press charges.