16-year-old girl explains why she charged onto football field and tackled player during brother's game
A teenager from Tennessee has spoken out after being charged with disorderly conduct and assault following a middle school football match.
Last week on Tuesday, August 18, a football game between South Middle School and Cornersville Middle School took place at Franklin County High School in Winchester, Tennessee.
At around 8pm, when South scored a touchdown and an extra point during the game in its third quarter, a commotion broke out on the pitch.
However, it wasn't just a scuffle that broke out among players, but a 16-year-old girl too, who was captured on video jumping a fence and running onto a pitch, tackling one of the South players.
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A video of the incident shows other players and coaches rushing to separate the teens.
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office said in a statement shared to Facebook: "A fan ran onto the field and tackled a player. The referees immediately ended the game and cleared the field. The stadium was emptied without further incident, and no one was injured."
The fan, a 16-year-old female, 'was released to her parents and has since been charged with assault and disorderly conduct'. And now, she's spoken out.
The 16-year-old told NewsChannel 5: "I was not just going after this kid just to go after him because that was not my intention at all."
Instead?
"Seeing what they were doing to him [my brother] and nobody stopping it, that kind of made me like the last choice of, okay, somebody has to stop this."
But what did the other player allegedly do to her brother?
Well, she claims another player grabbed her brother's face mask and swung him around multiple times, alongside her brother allegedly being hit in the ribs.
"That's when I was like, no, I'm done watching this," she said. "I really do love him and I would do anything for him."
The teenager's mother echoed she saw her son 'on the ground being attacked'.
"This wasn't just a football play. This was him on the ground being physically attacked by this other player," the mom said.
However, that's not to say she agreed with her daughter's actions.
The mom noted: "I made sure that she understood quickly that her behavior, that was inappropriate. She shouldn't have jumped over the fence."
The 16-year-old's actions have led to her not only facing criminal charges, but also being permanently banned from setting foot on any Franklin County School System properties for life and the 'TSSAA has banned her from Cornersville home and away games for one year', Franklin County Sheriff's Office added.
The teenager's attorney argued: "I believe her little brother was actually being abused on that football field. What that other player was not football.
"Could there have been less restrictive measures that were utilized rather than having this poor girl get served with petitions from a juvenile court system? Absolutely."
UNILAD has contacted Franklin County Sheriff's Office for further comment.
Poppy Bilderbeck