Florida Mother, April Newcomb, Arrested for Allowing, Encouraging Teen Catfight

PALMETTO, Fla. (CBS) The mother of a 16-year-old Palmetto High School student has been arrested and charged with child abuse for encouraging her daughter to fight another student.

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office arrested 39-year-old April Newcomb Wednesday after she failed to report or stop a fight between two teens, one of whom was her daughter.

According to The Bradenton Herald, Newcomb's teenage daughter informed her that she was going to fight another 16-year-old girl Friday in an empty lot.

Newcomb attended the fight and can be heard on a video, made during the fight, encouraging her daughter, but did nothing to prevent the altercation.

She told police that she went in order to make sure that no one was seriously injured, according to the paper.

"Of course, we're both wrong and I understand that, and I understand where y'all are coming from," Newcomb said in an interview with deputies. "I think unfortunately it was going to happen, no matter what."

The two girls arrived at the lot as scheduled and began throwing punches, pulling hair, and knocking one another on the ground, reports The Bradenton Herald.

Dozens of students showed up to witness the fight and posted the video, which many recorded on their cell phones, on You Tube; however, one student who saw the fight only had one thing to say - it was "dumb."

The video has since been removed from the site.

When detectives arrived at the scene, the fight was already over and neither party had been injured, says the Central Florida paper.

District and school officials are reviewing the case in order to see if any action - expulsion, suspension, or transfer - is merited on their part.

"Fights happen between students off campus that we never know about, and even if we do most of the time, there's nothing that could be done," Mike Barber, a district spokesman told The Bradenton Herald. "But if we feel there's a reasonable concern that this fight might come back to school grounds and present a problem there, then it could lead to some action being taken by the district."

As of late Wednesday night, Newcomb was in Manatee County jail on a $15,000 bond.