Mother Arrested After Allegedly Macing Group of Teenage Girls Who Were Fighting Her Daughter

A Virginia mother has been arrested after she attempted to protect her daughter in a fight on May 21, which turned violent.

The 34-year-old mother, Keisha Rankins, was with her teenage daughter in the city of Newport News, when they were approached by another mother and her daughter, reported Rolling Out.

The two teenagers soon started fighting, and the other girl’s mother, as well as several other teenage girls, joined in the fight, allegedly trying to harm Rankin’s daughter.

In an attempt to protect her daughter, Rankin is accused of picking up a can of mace from the ground at some point and spraying everyone so they would get off her daughter.

Police responded to the incident at around 7:15 p.m local time, and found a group of females being “disorderly” when they arrived at the scene.

Officers said some of the females had symptoms consistent with being sprayed by mace, reported WTVR.

Police found that several of the teenage girls had difficulty breathing and believe it could have been caused by the mace, reported Rolling Out.

According to WTKR, a mother of one of the teenagers involved in the dispute, Michelle Jones, had attempted to put an end to the fight, but it escalated.

“The children got past me and starting fighting my two daughters,” she said.

Police said they also spoke with Rankins at the scene.

Jones said her daughter and her daughter’s friend were both sprayed with mace, which left her daughter temporarily unable to see.

“She couldn’t see. Eyes were burned. She ran in my house to get a gallon of milk to try and save herself,” Jones said.

It is not clear who the mace belonged to or why it was on the ground at the time of the incident.

Jones added, “As a mother how would you do that to somebody else’s child? What if someone did that to yours?”

After further investigation, officers arrested Rankins and she was charged with three counts of malicious assault, two counts of assault, and three counts of contributing to delinquency.

Mother Faced Jail For Trying To Help Stop School Bullies

The incident is not the first time a mother from Virginia has been arrested for attempting to defend her daughter from bullies.

Back in November 2017, a mother of a Norfolk elementary school student faced jail time for trying to help her nine-year-old daughter use a device to record her bullies. The charges were later dropped.

The single mother, Sarah Sims, gave her daughter a digital audio recorder, hoping to capture audio from her classroom.

Officials from Ocean View Elementary School confiscated the device as soon as they found it, and Sims found herself facing felony charges, WAVY reported.

The single mother was charged with “felony use of a device to intercept oral communication and misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor,” which could have meant five years in jail for Sims, according to the site.

“I was mortified. The next thing I know, I’m a felon. Felony charges and a misdemeanor when I’m trying to look out for my kid. What do you do?” Sims told WAVY.