12-year-old girl with gun bangs on school bus door, video shows. Now mom is charged

A video of a 12-year-old student holding a gun and banging on the door of a school bus circulated on social media before she was arrested, according to Louisiana police.

At around 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 19, officers responded to a report of an aggravated assault at a location about 3 miles north of the school where the child is a student, according to the New Orleans Police Department. The student goes to Akili Academy, a pre-K through eighth grade school, according to WWLTV.

School officials did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

Officers arrested the 12-year-old student on Aug. 19 and charged her with aggravated assault with a firearm, according to the New Orleans Police Department. Police also charged her mother with principal to aggravated assault and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Crescent City Schools, the charter management organization overseeing the academy, sent a statement to WDSU.

“Crescent City Schools and Akili Academy are horrified by this brazen act of violence that happened off school campus,” the statement says, according to the news outlet. “School buses should be safe places of transport for our young people. Police were called Friday afternoon during this incident and police action was taken. The student is not at school and we are working with NolaPS regarding disciplinary action.”

A spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department told McClatchy News that the mother “aided the juvenile in obtaining the weapon.” He said he did not know if the mother is the owner of the firearm.

In a video shared on Instagram, a woman who said she was the child’s mother said her daughter was being bullied, and that’s why she brandished the gun. She said her daughter acted in “self defense.”

“I do not respect how my child is being held accountable for something that she was being bullied about,” the woman says in the video. “She was being bullied, so she pulled out a firearm… It was not supposed to be in her possession, though it was in her possession, so she pulled it.”

This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 1:38 PM with the headline "12-year-old girl with gun bangs on school bus door, video shows. Now mom is charged."