A teenager in Arizona is currently facing a misdemeanor assault charge for… hitting one of his schoolmates (who happened to be his ex-girlfriend) with a dodgeball during gym class.
There’s no doubt that the world has changed a lot in the past couple of decades. Technology continues to reach new heights and become smarter, all while the humans that populate the Earth seem to be getting dumber. In the latest example, an eighth grader named Abel Schipper is having to defend himself from an actual criminal charge because he hit someone else with a dodgeball.
According to the story, Abel and the rest of his classmates were in the middle of a warm-up session for gym class – where they would play dodgeball – and the young kid convinced some of his friends to help him get back at a girl he had broken up with. When she came out of the restroom, he and the two others hit her with dodgeballs that they would later use to play dodgeball.
Schipper told AZ Family they are the kind of dodgeballs that are made of foam, and compress:
“I didn’t think a dodgeball would hurt. And these are small ones too. So you can squeeze them and like they compress and stuff.”
A couple of days after the incident, the Yavapai Sheriff’s Office received a tip from a social worker that three boys had attacked a female classmate, and that the female classmate was hospitalized. An official police report included photos of bruising that the girl suffered after being hit by the dodgeballs, and Abel was later hit with a misdemeanor assault charge (even though he was never disciplined at school for the incident).
When the teenager was asked to defend himself, Schipper said this:
“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. I didn’t want to hurt her at all.”
And the “her” in this situation was his ex-girlfriend. But who among us didn’t try to get a little dodgeball revenge on an ex-flame in our teenage years?
As crazy as it sounds, a judge is set to hear the case against Abel and his other two friends on August 17. It’s definitely one of those “you have to be kidding me” stories, and the internet can’t believe that a teenager is actually going to court over hitting someone else with a dodgeball:
Wasn’t that the whole point of dodge ball?
— Michael S Lang (@michaellang1313) August 14, 2026
This boy in gym class before playing against his ex. pic.twitter.com/clOUO1Mu5l
— lsutigerzfan (@lsutigerzfan) August 14, 2026
let the kids play
— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) August 14, 2026
Isn’t the goal of dodgeball to target someone, throw the ball as hard as you can, and hit them? 😂
— Deplorabus Maximus (@DeplorabusM) August 14, 2026
Charged with hitting someone with balls during a dodgeball game? We used to be a proper country. pic.twitter.com/E2XDS0SaAx
— Dusty Bottoms (@dmall3) August 14, 2026
The kid spoke to TMZ about the incident:
