A 13-year-old faces an assault charge over a dodgeball game. A tipster says he ‘relentlessly’ targeted his ex-girlfriend: ‘Absolutely ridiculous’

A 13-year-old boy in Yavapai County, Arizona, is facing a misdemeanor assault charge after a dodgeball game during a PE class at Mayer High School, according to AZ Family. 

Abel Schipper and two other boys threw foam dodgeballs at a girl during a warm-up game in gym class. Abel later said he and his friends hit her with the balls.

The case is now headed to court, with a judge set to hear it on August 17. Abel’s mother told the outlet that the school never disciplined her son and that she only learned about the charge months later.

Sheriff’s office received a tip describing the incident as an attack

Two days after the dodgeball game, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office got a tip from a social worker at Banner Health. According to the police report, the tipster said three boys had attacked a classmate. The tipster added that the boys “relentlessly assaulted her with dodgeballs when she came out of the bathroom” and said the girl was hospitalized.

The police report also describes photos that the girl’s mother took. The photos show two bruises, about the size of a softball, in blue and purple, on the girl’s upper right rib cage and lower right abdomen. Concerns about student safety at school have made headlines elsewhere in the state, including a mother’s fears coming true after her daughter’s first school day.

A sheriff’s deputy interviewed all the children involved in the incident. All three boys told the deputy they did not mean to hurt the girl. But Abel told the deputy, “I’m not going to lie. I did target her a little bit.”

Abel later spoke to Arizona’s Family about the incident. He said targeting a player is a normal part of dodgeball. “Obviously I’m going to have to target somebody for dodgeball. It’s dodgeball. You have to choose somebody, throw the ball, then try to get them out,” he said. “I didn’t want to hurt her at all.”

He also said he did not expect the foam balls to cause injury. “I didn’t think a dodgeball would hurt. And these are small ones too. So you can squeeze them and like they compress and stuff,” Abel said.

Abel said the girl involved in the case is his ex-girlfriend. He described their relationship as not fully friendly but not hostile either. “I wouldn’t say we were on good terms, but I also wouldn’t say we were on bad terms. She used to hit me a lot and then she kind of just broke it off after that,” he said.

Abel’s mother, Cecily, told the outlet that the school never contacted her about the incident and that her son was never punished at school for it. She said she did not know a deputy had interviewed Abel on school property until she received a letter from the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice Center months later, informing her of the misdemeanor assault charge against him.

Cecily pushed back on the charge, saying dodgeball is a common game played by kids across the country. “It is absolutely ridiculous. This is a game that every kid in the nation plays at some point in their life,” she said. “They’re considering the dodgeball a weapon and that he knowingly or willingly, recklessly harmed this girl just playing dodgeball in PE.” Other cases involving school discipline over ordinary childhood activities have also drawn attention, such as a young boy suspended over a sandwich shaped like a gun.

Cecily also said she had seen no signs of conflict between her son and the girl before or after the incident. “I have text messages from her asking for rides home after this incident happened in December. So it was, it’s just strange. And I was friends with her mom as well,” she said.

She added that she does not want to blame the girl involved, but believes her son is also being treated unfairly by the legal process. “If it was a situation where, boys will be boys, then he deserves punishment for that,” Cecily said. “But I also think that, I don’t agree with victim blaming, but I think my son is also getting injustice here when it comes to the court situation.”

A judge is scheduled to hear the case on August 17. According to the Schipper family, two of the three boys involved plan to appear in court to defend themselves.