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Girl-On-Girl Fight Trend Growing Online

Behavioral Experts: Girls Are Worst Offenders For New Type Of Bullying

POSTED: 6:22 am EDT April 9, 2008
UPDATED: 7:26 am EDT April 9, 2008

Behavioral experts said girls are the worst offenders for the type of bullying associated with a recent attack described as "animalistic" in which a group of six girls pummeled a classmate for 30 minutes until she passed out.


PHOTOS: Attack Lasted 30 Minutes

Girls fighting girls is becoming a troubling trend on YouTube, experts said.

A search for "girl fight in Florida" in YouTube uncovered a series of violent fights in Brevard, Volusia and Orange counties.

Experts classify the beatings as cyber-bullying, saying the girls can continue to torment their victims long after their bruises heal by posting the beatings online for the world to see.

Behavior experts said girls are the worst offenders for this type of bullying, Local 6's Lauren Rowe reported.

Expert Jill Gentry said the over exposure to violence in our culture may be behind the girls' apparently inability to feel empathy for the girl they are attacking.

"Aggression unfortunately can be very contagious at times," Gentry said.

Report: Girls Joked After Attack

Meanwhile, the girls accused in the attack joked in a holding cell after their arrests and wondered about missing cheer practice after the alleged attack, according to a report.

"They seem to have absolutely no remorse at all," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. "I don't understand the sheer violence."

Video of the Florida girl being punched and beaten at a Polk County home has gained national attention in recent days.

Judd said that he now wants the six girls and two boys involved in the attack charged as adults.

Sheriff: Girls Set Trap

Investigators said the victim apparently posted something against the six girls on MySpace before she was lured to the home by a phone call from teen Mercedes Nichols.

Police said the girl traveled to the house and walked into the trap.

One girl met her at the door and five others were hiding in a back room, detectives said. The girls were then seen on video pummeling the girl in the face and body and slamming her head into a wall.

As the videotape rolled, a girl's voice is heard yelling, "There is only 17 seconds left; make it good."

Police said the girls wanted to post the video on YouTube and MySpace.

"'There is only 17 seconds left; make it good,'" Judd said. "That is animalistic behavior and it is pack mentality. They lured her there to beat her and beat her. They left her with a concussion. We have photographs of her with two black eyes; her nose is swollen."

The girl was taken to a hospital by ambulance and treated for a concussion, damage to her left eye and ear, and numerous bruises, the report said.

The girl can no longer see well out of one eye and hear from one ear, Local 6 reported.

Police said two boys stood lookout outside the house during the beating.

Some of the girls accused of being involved in the attack were on a cheerleading squad at a local high school in Lakeland.

Following their arrests, some of the girls joked in a holding cell, the Lakeland Ledger reported.

One girl asked if she would be able to make it to cheerleading practice the next day, the report said.

The six girls and two boys face battery and false imprisonment charges.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.


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