Inset: Arizona eighth-grader Abel Schipper (AZFamily). Background: The school where Abel Schipper allegedly pelted his ex-girlfriend with dodgeballs (AZFamily).
A 13-year-old Arizona boy is accused of "relentlessly" pelting his ex-girlfriend with dodgeballs, leading to an assault charge after the girl was hospitalized.
"It is absolutely ridiculous," said Cecily Schipper, Abel Schipper's mother, about her son being charged for the alleged "PE" assault at Mayer High School in Yavapai County.
"This is a game that every kid in the nation plays at some point in their life," she told AZFamily. "They're considering the dodgeball a weapon and that he knowingly or willingly, recklessly harmed this girl just playing dodgeball in PE."
Abel is facing a charge of misdemeanor assault in connection with the December 2025 incident, which left his ex-girlfriend hospitalized with softball-sized welts and bruises on her rib cage and abdomen, according to police.
A social worker contacted the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office two days later and told them Abel and two other eighth grade boys allegedly attacked the victim in gym class as she "came out of the bathroom" during a warm-up for a dodgeball game.
"[The boys] relentlessly assaulted her with dodgeballs," the social worker allegedly told the sheriff's office, according to a police report obtained by AZFamily.
Police interviewed Abel and the two other boys; all three claimed they had no intention of harming the victim. The boys allege that a warm-up dodgeball game had already started and that's why they targeted Abel's ex.
"We threw around the dodgeballs and then I throw it at her. I hit her," Abel told AZFamily. "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," he said. "I didn't want to hurt her at all."
Describing his relationship with the victim, Abel said, "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."
Cecily Schipper told AZFamily that despite the breakup, there were no bad feelings between her son and the victim.
"I have text messages from her asking for rides home after this incident happened in December," Schipper recounted. "So it was, it's just strange. … If it was a situation where, boys will be boys, then he deserves punishment for that. But I also think that, I don't agree with victim blaming, but I think my son is also getting injustice here when it comes to the court situation."
A judge is reportedly scheduled to hear Abel's case on Aug. 17. It's unclear whether the other boys have also been charged.
The school and the victim's mother did not respond to AZFamily's requests for comment.