An Augusta mother was arrested last week for taking her teenage son into Glenn Hills Middle School to fight a classmate, authorities said.
Leschia Casanova, 30, of Augusta, was charged Nov. 10 with disrupting public school, criminal trespass and contributing to the delinquency of dependency of a minor. All three charges are misdemeanors.
The mother allegedly went with her 14-year-old son last Monday afternoon to different classrooms at Glenn Hills Middle School, seeking the victim. When they discovered the right class, she and her child forced their way into the room, where Casanova allegedly encouraged her child to attack the boy.
“The accused then grabbed the victim by his jacket in an attempt to hold him and tore it as he fled from the room into the hallway,” the warrant says. That’s where Casanova’s child attempted to fight the boy.
“The victim continued to run away when the accused came after him, causing the entire class to follow them both out,” the warrant says. “As they pursued the victim from the 7th grade hallway to the 8th grade hallway, they were seized.”
Casanova is free on bond. School district spokeswoman Lynthia Ross did not immediately respond Monday morning to our request seeking more information on how the mother was able to freely roam the school hallways.
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In an interview, Casanova told a different story. She said she was called to the school three times on the day of the incident to get her son. When she got there, her son saw the young man and they started “going at it.”
“I encouraged my son to fight but the fight was already happening. I had nothing to do with it,” she said.
The suspect says she has a temporary restraining order on the young man and the school still let him back. She said the young man went “all over social media” talking about fighting her son and bullying her son.
Why is she smiling in her mugshot?
“I smiled (because) I did nothing wrong and I was happy my son finally stood up to his bully. Again the school called me to get my son. I came and he got into a fight with the young man. I never touched him,” she said. “The school just needs someone to blame (because) I was running after my son in the hallways telling him to stop and the mother complained asking how I got in the school. They let me in but I guess the charges are to cover they own a**es.”
Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report Contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com
