BERLIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — An 18-year-old male student with special needs was beat up at Jefferson High School on Dec. 4, after an incident with a female student earlier in the day. That 14-year-old female student says there's more to the story and is now speaking out.
7 Action News covered the story of Brian Czerwonka getting beat up at school in a disturbing video last week.We spoke to the Czerwonka family who claims the entire incident began with bullying after a female student wrote homophobic slurs on his computer in the middle of class. The family claims Brian pushed her away because of the act, causing his drink to spill all over him. When word of Brian shoving a younger female student spread, boys who knew the girl beat Brian up, causing him a trip to the ER.
That girl is Aeiva Marchese. Her and her mother, Theresa Marchese, claim Aevia never wrote anything on Brian's laptop, and it was something Brian made up to conceal him hitting her.
“She would never do that honestly," Theresa said. "She don’t even say those words around the house, to friends, or cousins.”
The act of Brian shoving Aeiva ultimately led to the fight. Brian was suspended for three days for shoving Aeiva, fighting back later that day and saying vulgar things.
The Marchese family now says Aeiva is being bullied at school for how she was portrayed as a bully herself. Theresa has taken her out of school as threats continue stacking up.
"For them to say that she’s doing this stuff, making her seem like a monster, she’s far from it," Theresa said. “There are some days I keep her at home especially when she’s got multiple girls trying to get her into the bathroom and fight her, calling in the hallway saying vulgar things to her.”
Ultimately, the family says it should've never gotten to the point of violence, but wanted to share their side of the story to show how things escalated.
“He shouldn’t have touched my daughter," Theresa said. “It’s not justifiable by fighting but at the same time tempers at teenage ages, they get bad.”
According to both families, no teacher noticed the incident between Brian and Aeiva, and both families want to see a complete stop to bullying of any kind at the school.
7 Action News did reach out to the Jefferson School District for comment about the fight who in a statement said:
"State and federal student privacy laws prohibit the District from commenting publicly on specific student discipline or student misconduct without parental consent. Jefferson Schools has policies and procedures in place to investigate and address any allegations of misconduct, issue discipline, and refer matters to and cooperate with law enforcement when appropriate and permitted by law. Those policies and procedures were followed here."
