NEWNAN, Ga. — Lawyers for a Newnan High School student say she's being punished for standing up for herself.
Nude pictures of the girl were posted on social media. %
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“They told me to stand up and he put the handcuffs on me,” said victim Xavier Jones. “Then I started shaking and crying.”
“(It’s wrong) to put a young girl in handcuffs over defending herself and standing up for being violated,” said attorney L. Chris Stewart.
“The only crime that we were able to determine was a disruption of public schools,” said Newnan Deputy Police Chief Rodney Riggs.
Jones indicated that she is appearing in our video because she believes Newnan school officials and police mistreated her in light of a video a then-boyfriend shot of her – an embarrassingly personal video.
“I characterize it as the victim getting victimized, and that’s exactly what happened in this case,” said attorney Gerald Griggs. %
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Jones said she learned from friends that nude video was circulating through the social medium called Kik and at school she poured water on her ex and cursed him out before a teacher led her to the principal’s office.
Her mother says Jones was suspended a day. The mother and daughter were summoned back to school on Tuesday where Jones was arrested on charges of a misdemeanor disruption of a school charge.
“I started crying ‘cause I just couldn’t believe that they would arrest her,” Jones’ mother said.
Riggs told Channel 2’s Mark Winne the case was handled properly.
“It drew a large crowd of students and it took a large number of the schools staff to break the crowd up, break the fight up and to restore order,” Riggs said.
Police records back up Jones claims about the video but suggest a witness alleged she threw a bottle of water on a male student and “threatened to kill him” because of the pictures.
“Ms. Jones was the one student arrested?” Winne asked Riggs.
“That is correct,” Riggs said.
Attorneys Stewart and Griggs said if police believe the threat was serious they would have charged Jones with more.
“They need to drop these charges,” Stewart said.
“Clean her record so she can go on to college and do great things,” Griggs said.
The attorneys say they are handling Jones' case for free.
Griggs told Winne late Wednesday evening that the investigation will continue in the case based on new information that has come up.
Cox Media Group
