HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- A 14-year old girl could be charged with assault and battery after she threw a baby carrot at one of her former teachers. School disciplinary documents allege a baby carrot was used as a weapon in an assault and battery of a Moody Middle School teacher.
"I don't even know how to combat the stupidity," Karrie May, whose 14-year-old daughter Aliya is currently suspended for launching the vegetable, said. May said her daughter has been out of school for a month.
"I don't understand this,” May said. “Yes, it happened, and I can see a couple of days in school detention or even a couple days out-of-school suspension. But this goes way beyond that. We have to go to court, and her charges aren't small: assault and battery with a weapon."
Aliya said she left class and saw a teacher she had last year in the hallway. So, as a joke, she said she reached for a baby carrot she had stashed at lunch and tossed it towards the teacher, never thinking she'd hit her in the forehead.
Karrie May and her daughter Aliya.
"If it's a soft carrot, it may not be as offensive,” said CBS 6 legal expert Todd Stone. “But if it's a raw carrot, you don't have to have an injury or show you were hurt to prove a battery. It just has to be an offensive, vindictive touch. That's what the law says."
Henrico Schools declined to comment on the carrot case.
Documents show the carrot was just under 2 inches long.
Karrie May said the school’s Disciplinary Review Board sent a letter recently to try to get her daughter to admit guilt. She said they respectfully declined. Now mom said they await a summons to see what happens next.
"This could go before a judge and there could be sufficient evidence to find her guilty, but I don't think it's something a judge would want to find her guilty of,” Stone said. “They may offer her counseling, sort of a carrot at the end of a stick."
Should Aliya be charged with a crime? Sound off on the WTVR CBS 6 Facebook page.
