Mother shares video of brawl, says daughter target of fights at Pittsburgh charter school

PITTSBURGH — A mother shared video of a violent brawl at a Pittsburgh charter school with Channel 11 News, saying her daughter was the target and continues to be the target in recurring fights.

Cellphone video taken two weeks ago inside Urban Pathways Charter School in downtown Pittsburgh shows as many as eight students engaged in a brawl with dozens of others watching against bathroom doors and lockers.%

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“I don’t know who I’m so supposed to call, so I called you guys,” Shalena Lewis told Channel 11 News Friday.

Lewis said her 15-year-old daughter has been harassed by bullies since the beginning of the year. She said another fight Friday morning between her daughter and another student led to a lock down at the school.

“My daughter is a disabled child and wears hearing aide. It might be because she is pretty with hearing aids,” Lewis said. “I want her to get an equal education without being bullied.”

Channel 11 News reached out to the school’s principal and chief administrative officer who said no one was hurt in Friday’s fight, adding the lock down lasted less than an hour.

School leaders said there’s a history between the students engaging in the fights, and they have scheduled meeting with the children’s parents for next week.

Lewis said her daughter has been suspended in the past, and she continues to meet with the school. However, she said the meeting haven’t been working.

“They suspend the kids. The kids come back and continue messing with my daughter and her friends. (They) suspended them again,” she said. “I am forced to put my kid in another school. I don’t want this to happen to another child.”

Lewis said she has a meeting scheduled with school administrators for next Wednesday to determine what will happen next.

Cox Media Group