Daughter faces aggravated battery charges after allegedly beating classmate. Her mother claims she was bullied: ‘She’s a child’

An 11-year-old student is facing second-degree felony charges of aggravated battery after being accused of severely beating a classmate at a Miami middle school. The student’s mother, Alba Castillo, has come to her defense, claiming her daughter was bullied prior to the physical altercation and urging officials to take that into account.

The incident took place in late September at the cafeteria of Nautilus Middle School in Miami and was captured on camera. In video footage obtained by Local 10, two girls are seen fighting, with one girl appearing to grab the other’s hair and repeatedly kicking and punching her while other students looked on. The confrontation continued until a school administrator separated the two girls.

According to the victim’s mother, Michelle Santos, her daughter was struck at least 40 times and suffered a concussion, bruises, and cuts on her scalp as a result of the beating. “I was just grateful that she was alive,” Santos told the outlet, adding that her daughter became too scared to go back to school since.

Daughter was allegedly acting in self-defense

The case was initially referred as a misdemeanor battery through a juvenile diversion program, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. However, after Santos requested that Castillo’s daughter be prosecuted and authorities took into account the extent of the victim’s injuries, a felony charge was filed.

Florida law states that children as young as seven years old can be arrested and charged with misdemeanors, contempt of court, local ordinance violations, or felonies. However, their case will go through juvenile court, where final rulings are made by a judge instead of a jury, according to The Defense Group. Unlike adult criminal courts, juvenile courts generally consider circumstances that led to the child’s actions.

Castillo, however, acknowledged that her daughter “made a mistake” but argued that she was “tired of being harassed and bullied” and was acting in self-defense. “My daughter, at 11 years old, has to go through this and see herself in the news,” Castillo said. “She’s not a criminal, she’s a child.”

Castillo claimed she and her daughter had been trying to get the school’s officials to address the matter of the alleged bullying since September, and felt that the situation could have been prevented. “I wanna tell the judge to please not only see just the video, but what happened before,” Castillo said. “What led up to that, why did she feel the need to react this way?”

Victim’s mother claims attack was planned

Miami-Dade County Public Schools officials, on the other hand, said staff members met with the two involved students in an attempt to de-escalate the situation prior to the incident. “The matter was addressed in accordance with the code of student conduct and referred to law enforcement,” officials said.

The two families attended court for the first time on Thursday, Oct. 29, where Santos called for accountability for the trauma her daughter faced. She also alleged that the “brutal attack” was premeditated. “I will stand for my daughter,” Santos told Local 10. “What is it going to take for something to stop? Is it going to take a child being killed?”

The judge also ordered Castillo’s daughter to have no contact with the victim, including on social media platforms. Similar to Santos’ daughter, Castillo told the court that she had pulled her daughter out of Nautilus Middle School, accusing the school of a lack of administrative support, CBS News reported.

Meanwhile, Castillo’s daughter will have her next court hearing on Dec. 21.

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