Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley called for a federal mandate that would boost the amount of safety officers in school buildings following the vicious caught-on-camera beatdown of a teenage student in his state.
“I’m in favor of doing for our schools what we do for sporting events,” Hawley told local outlet Fox 2 on Tuesday — four days after a fight near East Hazelwood High School that left a teen girl critically injured.
“If it’s good enough for some football games to have a security presence, to have cops, to have security cameras, surely it’s good enough for our kids,” the Republican lawmaker said.
In Friday’s mayhem, two teen girls had been brawling when one pushed the other to the ground, bashing her into the concrete.
The victim reportedly remains hospitalized with critical injuries while the 15-year-old suspect has been arrested.
“This is about protecting kids. People got to be safe in these schools. I think that, my gosh, this happened in broad daylight, people were filming it. Goodness gracious, we’ve got to do something about this,” Hawley said Tuesday.
The Hazelwood School District currently has a 24-hour school safety department that is responsible for security of staff and students on school grounds, according to the school system’s website.
Safety officers and safety monitors are staffed at each high school and middle school in the massive St. Louis County district.
Hawley also echoed the sentiment of other elected officials in the state, calling on local officials to “get tough” and put the teen girl arrested in the pummeling on trial as an adult.
“I hope the prosecutors will get tough here and do the right thing, which is to try the individual as an adult and protect kids at school,” Hawley told Fox 2. “Sometimes horrific things happen that are accidental. That wasn’t this. This is clearly intentional.”
“We pray for the girl who is in the hospital and recovering,” Hawley additionally said, per the station.
“The video is incredibly hard to watch. A jury needs to see that. We’ve got to send a message. This isn’t fun and games. This isn’t some little dispute on a sports field. This was an all-out assault, and we cannot allow that to happen.”
The teenage suspect was seen on camera hitting the victim on a residential road and then pushing her down before continuing the brutal attack on her. Soon after, the victim can be seen lying motionless on the ground while others continue to fight around her.
While the suspect was referred to juvenile court, officials from that court could attempt to go after the teen as an adult, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A judge would make the decision if and when a hearing is held.
St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell would then take the case.
Bell made clear in a social media post the decision on whether the teen is charged as an adult is not up to his office as he called the assault “sickening.”