A 13-year-old boy has been charged with misdemeanor assault after allegedly targeting his ex-girlfriend during a school dodgeball game, leaving the girl with two large bruises.
The incident reportedly happened in December 2025 during a PE class at Mayer High School in Arizona. According to a police report, Abel Schipper and two friends allegedly “relentlessly assaulted her with dodgeballs when she came out of the bathroom.”
The girl was later taken to the hospital, according to a report made by a social worker with Banner Health. The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office was contacted two days after the incident.
The teenager is being charged with assault
Her mother also reportedly documented the injuries, which included large blue and purple bruises on the girl’s upper-right rib cage and lower-right abdomen.
Schipper has admitted that he targeted the girl during the game, although he insists he never intended to hurt her.
“I’m not going to lie. I did target her a little bit,” he said, according to LADbible.
However, he argued that targeting another player is simply part of dodgeball.
“Obviously, I’m going to have to target somebody for dodgeball. It’s dodgeball. You have to choose somebody, throw the ball, then try to get them out. I didn’t want to hurt her at all,” he said, per WWNY.
Says he “didn’t think a dodgeball would hurt”
The teenager also described what happened during an appearance on Arizona’s Family.
“We threw around the dodgeballs, and then, I throw it at her. I hit her. One of the kids missed. The other kid also hit.”
Schipper acknowledged that his relationship with the girl had not always been straightforward, but said they were not on particularly bad terms either.
“I wouldn’t say we were on good terms, but I also wouldn’t say we were on bad terms,” he said, per WWNY. “She used to hit me a lot, and then, she kind of just broke it off after that.”
Still, he said he never expected a dodgeball to cause an injury.
“I didn’t think a dodgeball would hurt, and these are small ones too. So, you can squeeze them and they compress and stuff,” he told the outlet.
His mother calls the charge “ridiculous”
Schipper’s mother, Cecily Schipper, has questioned how the incident ended up in juvenile court.
She said she was shocked when the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice Center sent her a letter informing her that her son had been charged with misdemeanor assault.
“They’re considering the dodgeball a weapon and that he knowingly or willingly, recklessly harmed this girl just playing dodgeball in PE,” she said.
Cecily also claimed the children continued communicating after the incident.
The family maintains that the boys did not intend to cause the girl harm.
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