Mom joins high school daughter in bus stop brawl and beats girl, Florida cops say

A mom was seen on video joining her daughter’s fight at a high school bus stop and beating another girl, Florida authorities said.

Kathryn Stephanopoulos, 34, was arrested Aug. 19 on a felony child abuse charge, while a juvenile involved in the fight was charged with felony aggravated assault, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Investigators forwarded misdemeanor charges for the other girl to the state attorney’s office, deputies said.

Stephanopoulos’ attorney information isn’t available in court records. Flagler Schools had no comment on the incident.

A student on the bus full of Flagler Palm Coast High School students recorded the altercation in a three-minute video shared with McClatchy News, officials said.

The afternoon of Aug. 14, Stephanopoulos’ daughter texted her to say she was going to fight another girl, whom she was friends with until the two had a falling out over the summer, deputies said in an arrest affidavit.

The girls had agreed to fight once they got to the bus stop, one told investigators.

The mom arrived at the stop, later telling deputies she hoped her presence as an adult would discourage the students from fighting, according to the affidavit.

The two girls are seen on video taking off their backpacks and exchanging words before starting to hit each other.

Then Stephanopoulos gets involved, grabbing the other girl as her daughter continues hitting her, according to the video and deputies’ account.

The mom and the other student end up on the ground and Stephanopoulos puts the girl in what appears to be a headlock, restricting her breathing, the student told deputies, according to the affidavit.

The bus driver honked the horn and told those involved in the altercation to stop, deputies said.

The daughter begins fighting the girl’s sibling, who tried to intervene, until eventually more people arrive and break it up, the video shows and affidavit says.

But the groups don’t disperse, and one of the girls told deputies she then hit Stephanopoulos with a Stanley cup to get her and her daughter to stop, according to the affidavit.

Eventually the mom and her daughter get in the car as the video ends.

The bus driver called 911 to report the incident, and deputies interviewed the people involved in the fight.

Stephanopoulos “expressed her regret and embarrassment” about what happened and provided paperwork to show she went to the doctor for bruising and swelling on her face, investigators said.

The mom of the other two students told deputies she was “extremely upset about the marks” on her kids and wished to press charges.

Stephanopoulos posted $10,000 bond, records show.

Flagler County is on Florida’s Atlantic coast, about an 80-mile drive northeast from Orlando.

This story was originally published August 21, 2024 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Mom joins high school daughter in bus stop brawl and beats girl, Florida cops say."