Following an incident at Odessa High School, 15-year-old Charlize Rice is still suffering the effects of a concussion and seizure.
Her mother, Courtney Rice, said Friday she plans to take her daughter out of OHS and home school her. She also is looking for a lawyer.
The incident, which occurred Wednesday at OHS, was investigated by the Ector County Independent School District Police Department and the case is currently closed unless new information comes to light, Public Information Officer Mike Adkins said. No charges were pursued.
OHS Principal Mauricio Marquez could not be reached for comment on Thursday or Friday about the matter.
The fight was videotaped and shows a student on the floor in distress, but no one helping her.
Adkins has said the girl, who appears hurt, may not have been jumped, but threatening messages may have been exchanged between her and another girl. He said the video only showed the end of the fight and doesn’t give any indication of what happened in the hallway.
The video circulated on social media with many questioning why the OHS students who witnessed the girl’s seizure continued to film her rather than help her.
Adkins said a student did go for help, going to the nurse’s office first who radioed an assistant principal and a police officer.
Rice’s mother, Courtney, said Charlize had a concussion and a seizure from a knockout blow from behind. Courtney Rice said her daughter had never had any health problems.
An ambulance transported her to the hospital and she had an X-ray. She was classified at the hospital as being assaulted and was checked out that way, as well, Courtney Rice said.
Charlize had a doctor’s appointment Friday morning and might have to be sent back to the hospital for an MRI. The final diagnosis, Courtney Rice said, was assault checking in and leaving, a facial contusion, a concussion and bodily injuries.
She added that she suspects there were two girls, not one, involved and said this is not the first go-around with the two girls. Courtney Rice said one girl was threatening her daughter and bullied her on social media. She got a picture of Charlize Rice and put it on Snapchat with a message saying she was ready for sex.
Adkins said there is a thread on social media where threats went back and forth between the two girls before the fight.
However, Courtney Rice said there is no proof that her daughter threatened the other girl.
Adkins said when the ECISD police were done talking to Rice’s parents, they closed the case unless they get new information.
He said the difference between a fight and assault is a fight is mutual. Officers looked into it and determined it was a fight and Adkins said as far as he knows there were only two girls involved, not three.
Courtney Rice said she has been asking her daughter about the threats and her daughter swears she didn’t make any. Courtney Rice said officials are making assumptions based on no foundation and no evidence. She said she is still looking for evidence about what happened.
“All I know is what happened physically,” she said.
Adkins said if the girl who fought Charlize Rice had fulfilled all her graduation requirements and can’t be kept from graduating, but she could be kept out of the graduation ceremony.
He said he doesn’t know if there were surveillance cameras where the fight took place.
Asked if the students that videotaped the fight and did nothing could be penalized, Adkins said students are expected to react in a case like this, but there is not an expectation that the entire crowd will leave and run.
Courtney Rice said Charlize was bullied in seventh, eighth and ninth grade and this was the first year she made it all the way through without being bullied — until this week.
“In order to go to that school, you have to have some UFC martial arts skills to get through,” Courtney Rice said.
