NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla.,None — The Department of Children and Families is looking into charges that a mother encouraged her daughter to fight another girl at a middle school in New Smyrna Beach.
Candice Milam, 34, claimed that she was helping her daughter stand her ground during the fight, then tried to break it up by pulling the other girl's hair. Police said it looked like she was only encouraging the girls to fight.
On Wednesday, WFTV obtained video of the fight outside New Smyrna Beach Middle School.
Police arrested Milam after seeing students' cell phone video on Facebook of her pushing her daughter, Ciera Cotton, into a fight with another girl.
The scuffle after school only lasted a few minutes and at one point, Milam is seen pulling a girl by her hair.
Police said the video shows Milam handling the situation by encouraging violence. Before this, school board officials said Milam never approached school faculty or staff with concerns about students bullying her daughter.
When WFTV spoke to her at her home, Milam said she regretted her actions.
"I wish I wouldn't of, but what else was I to do at the time, except stand there and watch this happen?" Milam said.
Milam said she was picking her daughter up from school when she saw her in the crowd. That's when she got involved.
"Everybody was pushing us, it was this big circle that we were all in the middle of it and it was just yelling from every corner," Milam said.
Milam claims she was helping her daughter stand her ground.
"I've been telling her, 'if you don't, if you keep letting it happen, it's going to. It's not going to stop,'" Milam said.
No one was seriously injured during the fight. Milam is charged with battery and aggravated child abuse.
Police said this case will be reviewed by the Department of Children and Families. WFTV will check with the agency to see what it plans to do next.