Students film fight inside Mishawaka elementary school locker room

MISHAWAKA, Ind. —- New videos show a fight inside LaSalle Elementary School between two fifth grade girls last Thursday. 

Breyana Moreno said her knee was hurting at track practice after school on April 18. She said she went to the locker room to cool off, when other students walked in. 

“Everyone started to get their phones out cause they were I guess expecting us to fight,” Moreno said. 

Moreno said the girl called her ‘ratchet’ and she replied that she wasn’t. She said after that exchange the girl came up to her and ‘pushed her head into the wall.’

In two videos shared with ABC 57 News from Moreno’s mother, Cici, the first video shows a student walking up to Moreno who was sitting on a bench in the locker room. 

The girl pushed Moreno’s head back and then Moreno gets up and shoves the student. The two girls start fighting, while multiple students watch and film the scuffle. 

“Honestly, the first thing that went through my head was the poor kid at discovery,” said Cici Moreno, Breyana’s mother. 

In early April, a viral video spread across Michiana of an assault of a Discovery Middle School student inside the school’s boys’ bathroom. Moreno said her stomach was in knots when she saw her daughter in the fight video at LaSalle Elementary School. 

She said the elementary school’s principal told her that her daughter was at fault because she engaged in the fight. Moreno said she taught her kids that if someone is doing something to them, they can react. 

“You know don’t start it,” said Moreno. “But don’t let anybody pick on you.” 

Moreno’s daughter said she and the girl were close friends. She said days leading up to the fight the girl never touched her but would make faces at her in the hall. 

The school suspended Moreno for a day after the fight. However, Moreno’s mother said she expressed concern about bullying to the school’s principal on Tuesday. 

“Something’s going to happen and then two days later the fight broke out,” said Moreno. 

The School City of Mishawaka declines to comment on this video. An official with the Mishawaka Police Department said they are willing to investigate the fight, if Moreno filed a police report. 

Moreno said after she saw the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office charge two Discovery Middle School students with juvenile delinquency charges that she wanted to press charges.

“This is a big message that this bullying stuff has got to stop,” said Eric Tamashasky, St. Joseph County Chief Deputy Prosecutor. 

Tamashasky said at a press conference on Thursday the aggressor and the bystanders were held equally responsible for the crime at Discovery Middle School. He said it is the victim who suffers the most. 

“Everywhere that video was, people got to look at that little kid who did what we told him, don’t fight, you’re not supposed to punch people, you’re not supposed to be violent in school, you’re supposed to learn,” said Tamashasky.

Moreno’s daughter is back at school and said no one bothers her. But her mother said she wants the school to better supervise the students. 

According to Moreno, the two male track coaches on Tuesday wouldn’t have been able to go into the girl’s locker room and stop the fight.