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Teen Beaten With Chair In Videotaped Attack

POSTED: 9:20 am MST April 15, 2008
UPDATED: 11:49 am MST April 15, 2008

A 14-year-old girl was bashed over the head Thursday with a folding chair in her school's cafeteria in an attack that was videotaped and posted online.

Taylor Hedlund was eating lunch at Prescott Valley's Achieve Academy when a 15-year-old classmate knocked her unconscious.

Taylor said all she remembers is waking up on the cafeteria floor.

"I'm shocked that she would actually do that, that someone would actually do that," she said.

Taylor said she and the other girl used to be friends, but had recently fallen out. She said the other girl attacked her with the chair after Taylor called her fat.

"I didn't really expect her to ever want to fight me. She said she wanted to, but I didn't think she was actually going to do it," Taylor said.

Taylor said she thinks the attack was planned because another student had a cell phone camera ready and posted video of the attack on MySpace.com.

"What I don't get is that, like, why would someone record that?" Taylor said. "It's surprising. It's mean."

Taylor was taken to a hospital for tests and is OK, though she still has bruises on her forehead.

Her mother, who pulled Taylor out of school two months ago because she was being bullied, said she felt "very helpless to see her lying on the floor with a knot on her head about the size of a softball."

Kelly Hedlund said her daughter would no longer attend Achieve Academy. She also said she planned to take out a restraining order against Taylor's attacker, who was charged with aggravated assault and disorderly conduct.

Achieve Academy Principal John Nixon said only that the incident was "a school issue" and was being handled by authorities. Police had no comment on the case.

"I think girls just want to get in fights so people will think they're cool," Taylor said. "There's nothing cool about it, though."

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