Update: Girl who claimed she was punched in school gets ticket for lying

Posted at: 10/03/2012 2:50 PM | Updated at: 10/03/2012 6:30 PM
By: Berkeley Brean | WHEC.com

Haley McLean says she's bullied. Last week, she told her school and police that she was punched in a school hallway but security cameras show it didn't happen. Now she's ticketed for falsely reporting incident. She's due in Hornell City Court Thursday morning.

McLean told News10NBC that she lied about where she was punched because she thought it would get people to taker her claim seriously.

McLean says she was punched, but not in the hallway. Rather it happened, she said, earlier in the day as she walked to her ex-boyfriend's house.

Haley McLean: They wouldn't believe me if I said it happened outside of school. I didn't think they were going to believe me.  
Brean: Do you regret saying that?
McLean: Now I regret it because I have to go to court and everything.

McLean was pulled out of school by her mother recently. Candi McLean says her daughter is constantly bullied -- via social media, text messages and sometimes face-to-face.

Candi Cassidy, Haley's mother:  

I think haley is just scared that she walks down the street and she's going to get hit again. I think it's a matter of a technicality. Is it right to do that? No because even a small lie can mess up anything. And I have spoken to her on that. and we'll deal with what comes our way now.

Chief Ted Murray, Hornell Police:  

I wish she would have just told us what happened if indeed something did happen so that we could have investigated it. It makes it difficult when we don't get the facts or we get half the facts.

McLean is in Hornell City Court to answer the ticket Thursday morning.

Statement from Hornell Central School District

It is truly regrettable we couldn't do more; Haley was unable to identify who hit her or provide an exact location where the incident occurred.  Nevertheless, our Dean of Students and the School Resource Officer conducted as thorough investigation as possible, which included an extensive review of our video security footage, without result.  We take any incident such as this most seriously.  Fortunately, this does not happen often, but when it does and we can identify who is responsible, we act.

Superintendent Doug Wyant
 

 

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