Melissia Thomas on behalf of Aria Jewett v. Paris Cannon – Injunctive Relief Won for Client, Reversed on Appeal with Compelling Argument by the Court (2013)
After a violent attack on our client, Aria Jewett, a middle school student in Jacksonville, we were hired to get an injuction against the bully. More threats were being made and the Duval County School System was doing little about it. After a one day trial, a judge said he’d seen enough. He banned the teenage attacker from the public schools in the entire county. “This child is a threat to all of the children at any school. The injunction is a permanent injunction barring this child from returning to any public school in Duval County,” Davis wrote in his ruling.
This wasn’t Cannon’s first attack. In fact, she liked to film the attacks with cell phone videos, taken by her gathered around friends. Despite this, the school district’s superintendent, Nikolai Vitti, said the judge went too far and the case was appealed. We argued that the law was meant to protect victims like Aria Jewett, but the appellate court said the Legislature needed to to more. Read the Opinion here:
(Jewett Appeal)
(News Coverage 123)