A California mother is calling for action to be taken by her son’s high school after he was beaten up by four people in the locker room—allegedly at the request of a parent.
Last week, 14-year-old Dasanni Barfield was approached by a parent about an unknown incident and then followed into the boys’ locker room by four young men, believed to be between the ages of 16 and 19. As explained by Dublin High School principal Maureen Byrne, police have opened an “active investigation” into the attack to determine motive and additional details surrounding it.
Authorities have already identified several suspects, thanks to video footage of the incident. Byrne said in a statement that the community is “outraged” about the attack and noted that hallways leading to the parking lot will remain locked until further notice, requiring students to come through other doors to enter the school.
On Friday August 23, Barfield was beaten up by five males dressed in ski masks after getting into the school building. According to the freshman victim’s mother, Cherie, he was injured with a concussion and a broken nose. The attack is said to have taken place after school hours, around 3:30 in the afternoon, when the boy was getting ready for football practice.
The masked suspects were allegedly carrying out the will of a freshman girl’s mother, who was there with her daughter trying to identify Barfield as someone who had allegedly done something to offend the ladies—but no information about this has been revealed yet. The boy was with two friends when the masked suspects approached, but they fled the scene and left the freshman running to the locker room, where he was followed and subsequently beaten up.
The mother and daughter allegedly filmed the attack after following the men into the locker room. A head coach for one of the school’s teams was nearby when the attack occurred, and he stopped the incident with the help of some other students. But the boy’s mother claims that her son was overlooked and not properly assisted.
Cherie later explained that she knew nothing of the incident until she heard from another parent whose student had seen Barfield bleeding in the locker room. The mother then called the police and went off to the school to find her son. She was informed by a dispatcher that there were no police on the school’s property due to calls for them to report to a separate incident in a different area.
No police officers were directly on hand to respond to the attack at the school or follow up on the safety of the young teenager. Now that her son is recovering from injuries—and is not planning to return to the school amid safety concerns—Cherie has said that her family will take legal action against the school.
The Barfields have reportedly already hired a lawyer to lead this effort, and the boy’s mother has noted that she will request that the classmate and parent involved in the attack—presumably having led the masked suspects to do their bidding—be banned from the school district entirely.
