inquisitrlogo

 
32-Year-Old Long Island Woman Arrested For Fight With Tweens

Posted: September 13, 2011

daphne melin shirley

And again, a Facebook fracas makes it into the real world.

A 32-year-old Long Island woman- possible a mom to one of the minors involved- was arrested in the Mastic-Shirley area of the East End (just west of the Hamptons) for participating in a tween brawl. While one might think the role of a parent is to step in and prevent 12-year-old girls from ripping one another’s feather extensions out, Daphne Melin (whose relationship to the tween or tweens was not clear) is actually accused of encouraging the kids to have it out in the yard at William Floyd Elementary School in Shirley.

The kerfuffle occurred Sunday afternoon on school premises, although it’s not known why the parties were present at the school on the weekend. Melin later explained to police that the child for whom she was pulling during the fight had been cyberbullied by fellow students and that school officials had failed to intervene and help protect her child. Children present say Melin “egged on” the tween fisticuffs, but the woman’s offenses did not end there. According to witness accounts, after the melee, she attacked one of the children rather violently (if the account is accurate):

Mary Jones, 11, …said she saw “hair tugging and ripping and pushing and then the mom just started beating up the girl.”

Police said the fight on Sunday lasted several minutes… Melin “spit in the girl’s face and then grabbed her by the hair and kneed her in the head several times,” Suffolk police said.

Melin has been arrested by Suffolk County Police and charged with endangering the welfare of a child as well as attempted assault.

Comments


3 Archived Responses to “ 32-Year-Old Long Island Woman Arrested For Fight With Tweens ”

  1. Meryl O'Reilly
    Sep 28, 2011

    Oh THAT was really adult…instead of paying a lawyer for your defense now..how bout back then paying one to sue the school district for failing to intervene and protect the student being bullied if that was the real truth?

  2. Heidi Unick Dean
    Oct 1, 2011

    Of course it's not the adult thing to do. However, hiring a lawyer to sue the school district for failing to intervene is not the magical answer. School districts have better (and more) lawyers than the average person can afford and it's often hard to prove that bullying occurred and that school personnel knew & did nothing. Most parents fail to properly document incidents and communications with the school, therefore their cases are weak and hard to prove. I have spent the last year documenting the physical, verbal and social bullying of my son at his elementary school. I would say only now do I finally have enough concrete evidence that I could successfully sue the school & the district for their failure to protect my child. Did this woman go about things in an inappropriate and childish way? Yes… but I imagine her actions probably stemmed from a lot of pent up frustration. It's hard to watch your child's self esteem dwindle to nothing and know that the people in charge of the school are doing nothing to rectify the situation. And, like I told my son's principal, most bullies don't respond to verbal requests to stop, they only stop once you rock their snotbox good. Unfortunately, then the victim somehow gets pegged as the aggressor, at least at my son's school. Schools are messed up.


1 Trackback(s)

  1. Sep 14, 2011 : Daphne Melin Of Shirley Accused Of Encouraging Fight Between Two 12-Year-Old Girls « CBS New York « Zombies Vampires and other Freaks