A 13-year-old Arizona boy is facing a misdemeanor assault charge after a dodgeball incident during physical education class left his ex-girlfriend hospitalized with severe bruises. The case centers on Abel Schipper, a student at Mayer High School in Yavapai County, and an incident that occurred during a warm-up for a gym class game in December 2025.
According to investigators, Schipper and two other eighth-grade boys targeted the girl with foam dodgeballs as she emerged from a bathroom during the warm-up. A social worker from Banner Health contacted the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office two days later, reporting that the boys had “relentlessly assaulted” the girl with dodgeballs, and that she had been taken to the hospital. The girl’s mother documented her daughter’s injuries with photographs, which showed two softball-sized blue and purple bruises on her upper right rib cage and lower right abdomen.
Schipper has admitted to throwing a ball that hit the girl, though he insists there was no malicious intent. “We threw around the dodgeballs, and then, I throw it at her. I hit her,” he told Arizona’s Family in a television interview. “One of the kids missed. The other kid also hit.” When asked about whether he deliberately targeted her, he acknowledged doing so “a little bit,” but framed it as part of the game itself.
“Obviously I’m going to have to target somebody for dodgeball. It’s dodgeball. You have to choose somebody, throw the ball, then try to get them out,” Schipper said. “I didn’t want to hurt her at all.” He also dismissed the potential for injury from the balls used in the game. “I didn’t think a dodgeball would hurt, and these are small ones too. So, you can squeeze them and they compress and stuff,” he said.
Regarding his relationship with the girl, Schipper described their status after their breakup as neutral ground. “I wouldn’t say we were on good terms, but I also wouldn’t say we were on bad terms. She used to hit me a lot, and then, she kind of just broke it off after that,” he told the outlet.
Schipper’s mother, Cecily, has been highly critical of the criminal charge, calling the situation “absolutely ridiculous.” She contends that the school never disciplined her son and that she was not informed that a deputy had interviewed him on school grounds. “This is a game that every kid in the nation plays at some point in their life,” she told Arizona’s Family. “They’re considering the dodgeball a weapon and that he knowingly or willingly, recklessly harmed this girl just playing dodgeball in PE.”
Cecily said she did not learn of the criminal charge until March, three months after the incident, when she received a letter from the Yavapai County Juvenile Justice Center. She emphasized that despite the incident, there were no lingering hard feelings between her son and the girl. “I have text messages from her asking for rides home after this incident happened in December. So, it’s just strange,” she said, adding that she had even been friends with the girl’s mother.
Schipper appeared on TMZ Live with his mother, where he insisted he never intended to hurt anyone. He also denied that he and his friends had deliberately squeezed or compressed the foam balls to make them hit harder. As for how the girl’s bruises became so severe, he said he had no explanation. His mother clarified on the show that the girl was not admitted to the hospital but went to the emergency room to have a bruise evaluated.
According to the Schipper family, two of the three boys charged in the incident were scheduled to appear in court on Monday to defend themselves in the juvenile justice system. The case has raised questions about how schools and law enforcement handle incidents that occur during typical recreational activities, and whether criminal charges are appropriate in situations involving student athletes playing games during physical education class.