Jacksonville police give 8-year-old civil citation after school fight

A local family is outraged after JSO cited an 8-year-old for simple battery following an after-school fight.

Tara Vereen says her son Cameron now fears the police.

“He said, ‘I don’t want to go to jail when I haven’t done anything,'” Vereen told Action News Jax Thursday.

The incident happened at the end of April, near the playground at Lake Forest Elementary School.

The civil citation Cameron received says that he slammed another boy down to the ground, and that the child suffered a fractured collarbone.

Cameron’s family says he was defending himself from the other child, who they say had been bullying him.

“Cameron told me the other young boy had been bullying him, pushing him, threatening him, and hit him 11 times,” said Vereen.

Vereen said the other boy’s parents waited until the following week to press charges.

“I asked to speak with the mom, to see if we could talk and resolve this,” she said. “I didn’t feel that JSO should have been involved.”

She’s also frustrated that no one bothered to call her before JSO fingerprinted the child.

Family says police involvement was traumatic for Cameron, and he’s not even old enough to understand the juvenile court process.

He’s only 8 years old so he doesn’t understand,” said Mikhail Muhammad of the Organize Unity Coalition. “It was just a mere fight, there were no weapons involved. Therefore, we think the police should have used better discretion.”

Activists like Muhammad have joined the family in asking that JSO remove the citation.

He says another process, like counselling or mediation between the two sides, would have been more appropriate.

“We believe there should have been some other type of intervention,” he said.

In a statement to Action News Jax, a spokesperson with Duval County Public Schools told us:

"As the incident did not involve school personnel, I am redirecting you to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office as they may be better able to assist. The school and district are aware of this incident and have met with the family twice to assist in addressing their concerns."

As of Thursday night, JSO has not responded to our questions about why Cameron was cited.

Cox Media Group