The principal wasn’t really standing by, he was “utilizing a range of de-escalation strategies from verbal cues to physical restraint (as a last resort, per Maine law). He never got past “verbal cues”
The Maine Wire has the story.
Trans Student Had History of Sexual Harassment Prior to Assault, Biting Attack That Left Maine Girl Concussed, Vision Impaired
A female student was brutally assaulted, bit, and left with a concussion after an attack at the hands of a transgender male student who had recently begun taking estrogen injections
The transgender Maine high schooler who assaulted a high school girl on Friday was the subject of previous sexual harassment complaints at a different Maine school just months before video emerged showing him viciously attacking a classmate outside Mount Desert Island High School in Bar Harbor.
The video, one of two showing the violent attack, did not capture the entirety of the altercation or the animalistic brutality of the assault on the smaller female student, who spoke to the Maine Wire along with her parents on the condition of anonymity.
According to the victim and her parents, the attacker—a biological male who has identified as female for several years—struck the victim in the head with a steel water jug, was growling as she pinned her down on the sidewalk, and gnawed on her eye before grabbing her by her hair and smashing her head into the concrete.
An additional, unreleased video obtained by the Maine Wire, along with the initial video released on X by John Cardillo, confirm the family’s account of the attack and show the attacker twice striking the young girl with his metal water bottle before taking her to the ground, straddling her, biting her, and attempting to rip out her hair.
“He full on attacks her, gets on top of her and pins her down,” the mother told the Maine Wire. “So she’s not even able to defend herself in any way because he’s bigger, he’s heavier, he’s like six-feet tall,” she said. “And then he begins biting her eye and, my daughter said, while he was chewing on her eye he was growling.”
“He’s grabbing handfuls of hair and smashing her head off the pavement,” she said. “All the while the teachers, the principal is crouched down next to them.”
“When you’re smashing somebody’s head off pavement with that type of force, what is your intent? Your only intent is probably to kill that person,” she said.
The attacker—whom the Maine Wire is declining to identify as he is also a minor—had only recently begun injecting himself with estrogen as part of hormone replacement therapy, according to his Instagram profile.
“The whole time, she’s just screaming for help, crying and screaming, ‘somebody help.’ And nobody helped her,” the victim’s mother said.
“The principal sat there and screamed at them instead of helping. And [her daughter] said, ‘Mom, I really thought I was going to die. I thought that was it. I thought I was never going to see you again.’ And that’s probably the hardest thing to hear,” the mother said.
“That really haunts me,” she said.’In the videos, a male voice can be heard instructing the attacker to release his victim’s hair. The videos show the male student walking away after the assault ends, while his victim remains on the pavement screaming.
After the Maine Wire contacted [school principal] Haney for comment, his social media account was deleted from X. (After the publication of this story, Superintendent Mike Zboray sent a statement, which is posted below
“As you are aware, a fight occurred in front of MDIHS Friday morning. Due to privacy concerns and confidentiality requirements, I cannot legally share more about the incident or anyone involved. However, I assure you that school officials are taking the matter seriously and are handling it in accordance with our policies and procedures.
“Every student altercation is different, and administrative staff are trained to intervene by utilizing a range of de-escalation strategies from verbal cues to physical restraint (as a last resort, per Maine law). Every situation provides an opportunity to learn, for both students and staff, and we are always working to improve how we protect all students and staff. I trust our staff to follow their training and use their judgment in the best interests of those involved in these difficult situations.”
In the video, Haney can be seen in a green jacket standing by the fighting students, almost like a referee observing a wrestling match. According to the victim’s parents, it was only the actions of the bus driver that prevented the assault from doing more damage or perhaps even killing their daughter.
“If it had not been for that bus driver, he was able to grab [the male student’s] hand, and that’s the only reason that, probably that my daughter’s alive right now,” the mother said.
