*Bridgette Chocoteco, a 14-year-old Bakersfield High School freshman, suffered severe burns after campus security personnel allegedly restrained her on a scorching metal utility plate as she screamed that she was burning.
The Aug. 25 incident began after Bridgette got into a physical altercation with another student, according to reporting cited by the New York Post. Bridgette acknowledged that when a teacher grabbed her arm following the fight, she pulled away and eventually struck the teacher. Campus security then intervened. What happened next is now under scrutiny.
Bridgette said security personnel took her to the ground on a large metal utility cover that had been exposed to temperatures around 100 degrees. Although the plate was marked “electric high voltage,” her injuries resulted from its heated surface, not electricity.
“I was screaming that I was burning and they just kind of held me even harder,” Bridgette said.
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She alleges one of the security personnel responded, “That’s what I get.”
Bridgette suffered second- and third-degree burns, including serious injuries to her thighs and blistering on her stomach. She was later treated at a Fresno burn center.
Her mother, Kristian Chocoteco, said she initially expected to see the type of injuries that might result from a school fight — “bumps, bruises, scratches” — and was shocked by the severity of her daughter’s burns.
“I feel like this is child abuse,” Kristian said. She is calling for the security personnel involved to face criminal consequences. No such criminal finding has been established.
Bridgette, meanwhile, isn’t denying her own misconduct before the restraint.
“I know my actions weren’t right, but that doesn’t excuse theirs,” she said.
The Kern High School District said the incident is being investigated. Students have also protested at Bakersfield High School in response to what happened.
At the center of the controversy is a straightforward question: Once Bridgette was restrained and screaming that the metal was burning her, why, according to her account, wasn’t she immediately moved?
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