Woman charged in Dupo High School fight says she was defending her family from bullies
Ashley Jones says on the night she was arrested in connection with a fight at Dupo High School, she was taking matters into her own hands to defend her niece from bullies because the school and police department wouldn’t act.
Jones, 34, was one of three adults charged with aggravated battery on Nov. 15 following a physical altercation during a Sept. 26 powder puff football game at the high school. An 18-year-old student also faces the petty offense of obstructing a peace officer following the fight.
Jones says she had reported the bullying of her two nieces to both Dupo police and the school district multiple times over three years, but nothing was ever done. That’s why she went to the school to confront the students directly, she said.
“What has been going on is ridiculous,” she said. “My family has been continuously attacked by these now 18- and 19-year-olds. It is constant.”
Police Chief Kevin Smith says it was determined after weeks of interviews with multiple witnesses that Jones was the instigator in the fight. He said he has no record of reports from Jones, nor does the school’s resource officer.
“I have known her for years and she has not come in to talk about this ever,” Smith said.
Dupo School District 196 Superintendent Kelly Carpenter said that, while she cannot address specific student student issues, the district takes bullying “extremely seriously.”
“We always talk about bullying and what that looks like and what the consequences are,” Carpenter said.
She noted that the school has a bullying hotline where students can make anonymous complaints that are then investigated by administration, social workers and the school resource officer.
“We work hard to cover our bases,” Carpenter said.
According to Jones, an older niece was first bullied by a group of Dupo High School students online and in person. It was bad enough, Jones said, that it prompted her niece to transfer to another school.
When that girl’s younger sister — the niece Jones says she was defending at the football game — was physically attacked by the same bullies, Jones says she took it up with the other students’ parents and was even involved in a fist fight with one of their mothers. She said she also faces an assault charge from that fight, which occurred in March.
At the powder puff game in September, Jones and her father, Brian, and her niece’s boyfriend’s father, Jeffery Snider, were fist fighting with other adults and juveniles, Smith said. Jones says it was one of the bullies who started the fight by shoving her, then pepper spraying her father.
“I had to defend my dad,” she said. “That’s when two of the boys hit me and a girl ran at me and ended up punching me. I hit back.”
Jones now acknowledges that fighting with the students may not have been the best reaction to being shoved, but that her anger been brewing for too long.
“I want to know why they can’t leave (my nieces) alone,” she said. “It’s not right. They’re supposed to run from these kids constantly? Something should have been done.”
Smith said that the police department has worked closely with the school in the last two years to address the issue of bullying. Last school year ended with an assembly on the subject, he said, and this year was kicked off with another.
“We take bullying very seriously and have even charged juveniles before for it,” he said Tuesday.
Smith said that the morning of the football game, Snider spoke with police about the issues his son and Jones’ niece had been having with other students.
“He said if we didn’t do anything about it, he would take matters into his own hands and that he had bond money,” Smith said.
That night, Smith says extra police officers were at the powder puff game to make sure nothing happened. It’s when all but two of those officers were called to another incident that the fight broke out.
Carpenter said that the school district will continue with the annual powder puff games.
“I would certainly hate to take away an activity that is important to the kids because of the behavior of adults,” she said.
Jones’ lawyer, Madelyn Daly, declined to comment on the case. Snider’s lawyer, Gregory Skinner, could not be reached for comment.
This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 3:40 PM.
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