A Bronx mother and daughter were arrested yesterday after it came out that the mother gave the 17-year-old girl pepper spray to use against bullies at her high school. Tracy Morales, 38, is accused of giving her four months pregnant daughter Clerissa Loucks a canister of pepper spray and encouraging her to use it. "Three females jumped her and beat her up so badly in the cafeteria the ambulance had to be called. I'd give her the Mace again," Morales defended herself.
Loucks admits she sprayed two rival female students after they attacked her in the lunchroom of the Pablo Neruda Academy High School on Wednesday. The fight broke out minutes before the teens were set to have a mediation meeting with school administrators. The four-months pregnant Loucks says that officers treated her too harshly during her arrest: "They got really, really physical. They slammed me on the floor, had me face down on my stomach and sat on top of me," she said.
Both mother and daughter were charged with criminal possession of a weapon. Morales has been convicted twice before of conduct detrimental to a child, including once for fighting on behalf of her son. Ultimately, Morales says she had to protect her daughter from the bullying, by any means necessary: "You can't continue to bully children. People are dying over it. Children are committing suicide over it. And I wasn't going to let my daughter be one of those statistics."
