Local

Teen says boy attacked her on high school track

UNION CITY, Ga. — A female student told Channel 2 Action News she was attacked while walking on the track at her high school.

Now the girl's mother is worried it could happen again.

The girl told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri it happened at Banneker High School in Union City.

The girl said a 13-year-old boy attacked her as she walked after school.

Police are investigating but her mother believes the boy is still free is because he's a juvenile.

A witness told Viteri the teen was trying to sexually assault the girl and only stopped when he and another man intervened.

Witnesses say it was still light outside Aug. 23 when the boy approached the 14-year-old student as she walked on the high school's campus.

"When she tried to leave, he physically restrained her, dragged her and threw her to the ground," mother Latonya McLaughlin told Viteri.

McLaughlin said her daughter was at the school to exercise on the track when the boy approached and quickly became violent.

"To keep her from struggling, the boy started punching and hitting her until she fell to the ground," a Union City police report said.

That's what Dionta Houston told Viteri he and a friend saw.

"(He) grabbed her by the head. Then we started hearing her scream. That's when we took off running toward their way," Houston said.

Houston told police the teen was trying to force the girl to have a sexual encounter and beating her.

"She was on the ground when we got down there and he was just punching her on the side. She had a big knot on the side of her head," Houston said.

The men said they chased him off and walked the girl home to her father.

"She's balled up on the ground crying. And now that I know she's 14 years old, I'm even more mad about that," Houston said.

McLaughlin said the family called police who are investigating but so far no charges have been brought against the 13-year-old.

"There's no punishment, so there's no reason for him not to continue to act," McLaughlin said.

"You keep letting him get away just because he's young, he's going to keep doing it. And I think it needs to be handled right away before he grows up to do more," Houston said.

McLaughlin calls the two witnesses good Samaritans.

She said her daughter no longer walks to school alone and she also wrote a letter to the community warning them that this alleged attack happened in the middle of the day so they can keep an eye on their children.