REDWOOD CITY (KRON)—Police have released a statement Saturday night after a Redwood City high school student was attacked for supporting President-elect Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, an alleged assault occurred against a Woodside High School student while she was on that campus, reportedly arising from issues surrounding the presidential election. The Redwood City Police Department has received a number of inquiries from local residents with concerns about the incident and ongoing investigation. Woodside High School is not located within the city limits of Redwood City, therefore the Redwood City Police Department has not been involved in this case.
While we welcome questions and comments from the public, it would be inappropriate for our staff to discuss cases or investigations that do not involve the Redwood City Police Department. The Woodside High School assault case is currently being investigated by the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, which holds jurisdiction over that campus. Apart from the criminal investigation, any administrative disciplinary proceedings that are relevant in this case will be handled by the school district.
There’s no question that Jade Armenio, a sophomore at Woodside High was physically attacked.
It was caught on a cell phone camera on Wednesday.
The debate is what the attack was about.
We don’t see much of the beginning of the altercation in the footage, but you’ll see the other student Maliyah grabbing Jade’s hair.
The two are sophomores at Woodside High in Redwood City.
Jade’s family says they are shocked that their daughter is targeted and have kept her home since it happened Wednesday.
They say they’ve been getting a lot of support from other parents, but are also seeing a backlash from students and other in their community.
Here’s Jade explaining what happened before the video starts.
“She said you support Trump, you hate Mexicans,” Armenio said. “I said no I do not and she said I wanna do it and I said you want to do what? And she threw me to the floor, pulled out my hair, ripped out my earrings, kicked me inside of the head, kicked me in the stomach, punched me in the nose.”
“She’s got Mexican friends,” said Gina Armenio. “She’s got black friends. We have them over. We do not have any issues. We’re not racist and have never been racist and nobody, nobody should beat somebody up because of that. So if that’s her reasoning, I’m appalled.”
Jade says she thinks this confrontation was about an Instagram post she put up election night.
She posted a screen grab of CNN’s projecting Donald Trump’s win.
She says her friend slothy_loppy commented “Hell yeah,” then another comment from him that says, “F Mexicans.”
Jade responds “One of the few things we can agree on slothy_ loppy.”
Jade says that response was about his first commenting supporting her original post showing Trump winning.
Jade’s parents say they’re considering switching schools.
They say they don’t feel Jade is safe there.
Students and staff from Woodside High School were protesting Thursday after Jade was attacked for supporting President-elect Donald Trump.
One student said they were protesting actions they saw as racially insensitive and unjust.
The protest was peaceful.