A Long Island mom who was arrested after encouraging two 12-year-old girls to fight outside an elementary school said her daughter was being bullied on the Internet.
Daphne Melin, 32, egged on the brawl outside William Floyd Elementary School in Shirley on Sunday afternoon and then beat up another child who was watching after word of the fight erupted on Facebook, Suffolk County cops said.
But Melin claims that her daughter was being bullied online.
“She is a sweetheart — she’s a wonderful girl,” Melin said of her daughter. “Things are happening with the cyberbullying. These girls are eighth and ninth grade and [my daughter] is in seventh grade but they have no problem bullying her around.”
Police said Melin “made no effort to stop the fight.”
“It sounds horrible and it’s just not that way. It’s not true, ” Melin insisted to The Post today. “I’m not that monster that everybody’s trying to say I am.”
Melin said she called the school principal about the bullying but was told that “since it’s an online issue, they can’t do a thing about it.”
“I have documentation to prove that these girls started harassing my daughter, and it’s been going on for weeks,” Melin said.
“They instigate things. They are the ones who wanted to go out and fight.”
Melin said her daughter was called names and threatened.
“It’s just a horrible nightmare and I wish that it could have been resolved earlier with the principal and the school,” she said. “It wasn’t my finest hour.”
Melin’s lawyer, Michael J. Brown, said the fight was sparked over a boy. “A group of girls didn’t like the attention that was being paid to my client’s daughter. I don’t know if it’s just attention or he’s dating her but that’s what spurred this — the jealousy and the threats. They were calling her every name in the book.”
He also said that Melin went because there were repeated threats that her daughter was going to be attacked at the school. He says they posted on Facebook “We’re going to jump you in school.” And, Melin wanted to chaperone “to make sure no weapons were used.”
Suffolk Det. Lt. Timothy Dillon said Melin brought her 12-year-old daughter to the fight and that the kid “was having a dispute on Facebook for awhile with another girl’.’
“It just seems to have been a personality conflict. At some point, they decided to have a fight” at 3 p.m., said Dillon.
A crowd of kids, drawn by a posting on Facebook, also arrived.
“When it came time for the fight, Melin drove her to the elementary school” — but “another girl … a friend, stood in” for the girl who did not appear.
Melin “was encouraging one of the girls to hurt and attack the other girl,” said Dillon.
He said one girl in the crowd scolded Melin, saying, “You shouldn’t be doing this. You should be breaking up the fight.”
Suffolk cops said Melin pushed the kid to the ground, then kicked her in the head and neck.
Melin was charged with three counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and attempted assault.
She has been released on bail and will be arraigned Dec. 1, police said.
Melin’s behavior “was outrageous,'” said Dillon.
“She knew what was going to happen and she made it happen,” he added. “She wanted the 12-year-olds to fight.”