A teenager from Middletown, caught on camera throwing a chair at her teacher, says she “snapped” and regrets what happened inside her classroom last month.
The student is now criminally charged for the violent outburst. She is sharing her side of what happened and apologizing for her actions.
The incident was captured inside a Marshall High School classroom in Middletown and shows a teacher trying to intervene as two female students are arguing. The teacher said they were fighting about a harassing social media post. One student is seen becoming visibly angry, throwing her phone, and then picking up a chair. She then hits the teacher in the back.
With permission from the 16-year-old girl’s grandmother, her legal guardian, WLWT’s Jatara McGee sat down with her to talk about the surveillance video. WLWT is only identifying her by her first name, Jurnee.
“I look like a monster,” she said. “That’s just not me. I don’t do stuff like that. I have a lot of anger issues, but I never put it towards people. I’m always friendly, but I kind of hold my anger in. When you push the limit, I let it out.”
Jurnee said the other student had been bullying her all school year, and she was trying to hit her with the chair, not the teacher. She admits that either way, her actions were wrong.
“I just feel so bad that I had to go to that certain level of risking someone’s life,” Jurnee said. “I just couldn’t take it. I just snapped.”
She said she has been bullied for as long as she can remember, and with social media, the taunting does not stop when she leaves school for the day and comes home.
“It’s more than just depressed,” she said. “I just think it makes me change as a person. It makes me feel nothing. You’re numb to it.”
This school year, she and her grandmother said they made numerous complaints to the school’s administration, but the bullying did not stop.
Marshall High School previously declined to comment on the incident.
Jurnee said she wishes she could go back to and walk away. She hopes the judge who hears her case realizes she is remorseful and helps her get more help with anger management.
She also hopes her experience helps someone else experiencing bullying and reminds them not to let anger get the best of them.
“I think I really need to slow myself down and focus on my goals,” she said. “I want to be an artist. That’s all I want to do, just inspire people.”
The teen is scheduled to appear in Butler County Juvenile Court Thursday on an assault charge.
