Mother charged in alleged assault of daughter

June 20, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

WASILLA - A June 9 graduation ceremony at Wasilla Middle School was marred when a mother allegedly assaulted her eighth-grade daughter.

About 1:45 p.m., Wasilla police received a report that Laura Vasquez, 31, of Wasilla had pulled her 15-year-old daughter out of the graduation ceremony and assaulted the girl near the school's entrance.

Dave Eller, school resource officer with the Wasilla police, said Vasquez was at the school when he arrived, but left shortly after his arrival and refused to return to speak with him.

Witnesses reported to Eller that Vasquez was angry her daughter wasn't graduating, and vocal about it to the point of disrupting the ceremony.

&#8220They said she reached a point where she wanted to leave and ‘take it outside' with the girl,” Eller said.

And then Vasquez did take her daughter outside, pulling the girl by her hair and arm, according to what witnesses told Eller.

Witnesses reported that Vasquez punched her daughter about six times with a closed fist.

&#8220One witness told me that when they told Vasquez she needed to stop, she said, ‘Mind your own business,' and when someone told her again to stop, Vasquez said, ‘Mind your own business or you'll get some, too,'” Eller said.

The girl later broke away and ran into the school, Eller said.

Eller said when he called Vasquez at home and asked her to return to the school, she said she wasn't coming back and that she hadn't done anything wrong to her child.

Eller forwarded a charge of fourth-degree assault to the district attorney's office. The 15-year-old was taken to the Saxton Youth Shelter. Eller said another officer spent more time than he did with Vasquez, but neither officer had a chance to determine whether Vasquez was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Alaska court records show no prior criminal charges against Vasquez, but another woman filed stalking proceedings against her on May 15. A long-term stalking order was denied on May 31, when the petitioner failed to show up in court.

This was the second assault at the school involving adults this year. On March 30, a sixth-grade girl came to school accompanied her aunt and mother, twin sisters Mary Bright and Martha Hunter, 36. According to police, the sisters instigated a fight between the girl and another student in a hallway at the start of school, shouted encouragement during the fight, and when school officials intervened, took the child and went home.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.