Family wants justice after they say their son was viciously assaulted
Family wants justice after they say their son was viciously assaulted
FOX 29's Jennifer Joyce spoke with the family who says their son suffered a serious concussion after he was assaulted by a group of students.
NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA - A Northeast Philadelphia family is telling their story after they say their son was viciously assaulted by a group of students from a neighboring high school.
"They could’ve killed my son," Jasalyn Realpe told FOX 29.
Jasalyn and her husband, Ryan, are speaking out in hopes of getting justice for their son. He is a Father Judge High School junior who they say was beaten unconscious Tuesday night by a group of students from neighboring Catholic high school Archbishop Ryan.
"We get a knock at the door, we open see our son with a swollen eye, bleeding face and couldn’t really hear or understand what he was talking about," Ryan explained.
School officials say the fight seen in a video circulating social media is under investigation. The family says the footage is a gut-wrenching glimpse of what their son and his friends endured.
"Once we saw the video, that individual on top of my son hitting him while he was unconscious we knew we couldn’t stay shut," Ryan.
The Realpes didn’t want their 16-year-old involved in FOX 29's story, but they say he was with Judge and Ryan friends at Chalfont Playground when just before 10:30 p.m. a friendly hangout turned violent and someone started rolling.
The family tells FOX 29 their son suffered a serious concussion.
"He has no memory of that doesn’t even remember going to school that day," Ryan said.
Officials from both schools are now involved and say that the disturbing fistfight happened days after a rival Judge-Ryan football game that brought on heated exchanges between students from both schools.
In a joint letter, Judge and Ryan administrators told school families that they are cooperating fully with a police investigation and conducting an internal investigation of their own, stating in part quote, “Fighting will not be tolerated. We expect all members of our school communities to conduct themselves with Christian dignity and respect at all times whether on school grounds or not. Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against those responsible...”