“This didn’t have to happen,” says mother of beaten Ruskin High School student

The fractured relationship between Ruskin High School students Cullen Landis and Jonay Wright had been troubling both of their families for months before Landis was beaten to the point of unconsciousness in the school Tuesday.

Municipal court records obtained by The Star Wednesday show Landis had been cited for hurting Wright at the school in June.

But now Jonay Wright and her father, Josiah S.Wright, 38, are charged with severely beating Landis.

Cullen Landis’ mother, Ebony Landis, wished the day after the assault that the father had spoken to her and her husband instead.

“This didn’t even have to happen — none of this, at all,” Ebony Landis said Wednesday. “My son in ICU? They’re in jail? For what?”

Josiah Wright was charged with first-degree assault and Jonay Wright was charged with second-degree domestic assault.

It wasn’t the first time the situation had erupted with violence inside the school.

The Wrights’ charges came just over three months after municipal court records show that Cullen Landis was cited with intentionally inflicting injury, accused of throwing Jonay Wright to the ground and striking her with his fist. Wright’s lip was cut and swollen, and she was bruised.

“It’s been an ongoing situation … we’ve tried several ways to de-escalate,” said Tamara Landis, Cullen’s aunt.

The meeting between the Wrights and Cullen Landis Tuesday inside Ruskin was apparently an unexpected, chance meeting.

Court documents show that witnesses say the father had gone into the school and met with his daughter in the school’s student services room to get her school schedule when they saw Cullen Landis sitting at a chair in the area.

Josiah Wright told police that Landis sent a threatening text to his daughter’s phone. And witnesses describe a scene in which both the father and daughter went after Landis, inflicting a beating that rendered Landis unconscious.

“I’m just hurt that my child got attacked by a grown man,” Ebony Landis said. “Even though he’s 18, he’s still a kid. … It hasn’t even really sunk into my head.”

“We don’t commend wrongdoing,” she said. “If the parent had come to us and talked to us we all could have sat down and spoken with both children and tried to resolve this.”

Cullen Landis and Jonay Wright dated from late 2016 into the spring of 2017, family said.

The break-up of their relationship has been hard, but the description in court records of the alleged attack Tuesday are harrowing, Tamara Landis said.

Cullen Landis, who was listed in court records as 5 feet tall and weighing 95 pounds, was pulled from a chair, beaten on the ground, his head stomped before anyone could intervene. He was taken to the hospital with possible swelling and bleeding of his brain, severe cuts to his right eye and swelling and bruising to his entire head.

“I’m not going to say he was perfect,” Tamara Landis said of Cullen Landis. “He’s a typical teen. That boy is funny. He has an awesome spirit. He’s caring. He’s fun to be around.”

Landis was still in critical condition Wednesday, but his injuries were no longer life-threatening, the family said.

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 6:48 PM with the headline "“This didn’t have to happen,” says mother of beaten Ruskin High School student."