West Cook News

The Western Springs Police Department announced late Monday they would be filing criminal charges against 16 year-old Heavyn Washington, the Lyons Township sophomore who staged and had her friend film her while attacking and beating a freshman student last week.

Washington will be charged with battery, a Class A misdemeanor, Police Chief Brian Budds wrote in a press release.

"The 16-year old youth was arrested after an investigation stemming from her role in a physical altercation which resulted in injury that occurred on 4/27/22 at about 1:00 p.m. at Lyons Township South High School, located at 4900 Willow Springs Road in Western Springs," he wrote. "The follow-up investigation confirmed the youth defendant intentionally and without legal justification, confronted a 14-year old female student, proceeded to physically strike the victim multiple times, and pulled the victim by her hair while the victim was on the floor, which resulted in visible injuries that required medical treatment."

"The investigation into this incident remains ongoing," he wrote. 

The police "follow-up investigation," West Cook News has confirmed, has not yet included an interview with the victim or her father, who works as a police officer.

"We've been waiting to hear from them," he told West Cook News.

The Heavyn Washington attack video is available for viewing here.

As of Monday morning, the victim's parents said they hadn't yet heard from Budds, who said he was out of town last week.

Sources told West Cook News that Washington planned the unprovoked attack and that Lyons Township High School officials were notified by the victim, who appealed to school Assistant Principal Adam Davis to protect her. But Davis sent her back to the classroom, where Washington found her the next period.

According to the Illinois Criminal Code, "a person commits battery if he or she knowingly without legal justification by any means (1) causes bodily harm to an individual or (2) makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with an individual." A conviction for Class A misdemeanor battery may result in a fine up to $2,500 and a jail sentence of up to one year.

Also according to the state criminal code, "knowingly recording" video of a battery with intent to disseminate that video is an "aggravating factor" that elevates the battery to a Class 3 felony. This has been the case since 2013, when the Illinois House and Illinois Senate both voted unanimously for a bill making the change.

In June 2020, a River Forest man was charged with aggravated battery and a hate crime for knocking a phone out of the hand of a belligerent woman working as a Starbucks barista who had followed him out of the store. The man was white; the barista was black.

In Nov. 2021, a 14 year old Joliet West H.S. student who Joliet police said approached and "began repeatedly striking (a 15 year old) in the head while seated at a cafeteria table" was arrested immediately and charged with aggravated battery, then transported to River Valley Detention Center.

In Dec. 2018, a Lockport H.S. student was charged with aggravated battery after his attack of another student was recorded and disseminated. The student was arrested immediately and the victim taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

In Jan 2017, a 16 year-old student at Stevenson High School in north suburban Lincolnshire was arrested and charged with aggravated battery one day after video emerged of his beating a 15 year-old student on a school bus.

The school released a statement calling the attack premeditated and saying that "the students who planned and recorded the attack will receive significant disciplinary consequences from the school, and also face charges from the Lincolnshire Police Department."