MIAMI – A fight involving at least eight Palmetto Senior High School students was caught on camera, and now witnesses are blaming a school security guard for not doing more to break it up.
The fight on school grounds left Luis Marin bruised, swollen and with a broken jaw.
"He got a piece of titanium in his jaw to put his jaw together," said Ernesto Morero, the victim's stepfather. "All his teeth had to be wired."
"I knew they broke it. I felt it, I heard it crack," Marin told Local 10's Terrell Forney.
Through the intense pain, the 17-year-old junior described how he wound up in the middle of the fight.
"I tried to defend my friend," he said. "I ended up getting hurt."
"I remember Luis was screaming and they just punched him," said Alex Paz
"Nine of them hitting him like he was a punching bag," said Angel Herrera.
"I've never seen 10 people on one kid," Paz said.
"They threw him on the ground as if he was a rag," Herrera said.
"I just feel it's unfair what happened to me," Marin said.
The school district confirms that people were involved in this attack last Friday at Miami Palmetto Senior High.
Luis was the only one seriously injured and now his family and some witnesses are pointing the finger at a school security guard who was present.
"He could break that up," Morero said. It's not necessary to hold onto one while eight kids are jumping onto my kid."
"I'm upset with security. I feel they should've done something quicker," Herrera said.
In a written statement emailed to Local 10, a spokesperson with Miami-Dade schools said: "We have looked at several video sources and learned that the school's security guard, as well as a teacher, tried to stop the fight. Students have been suspended."
But the victim and his family say it's not enough.
"They cannot let six, seven people or whatever rush in and almost kill my son. Almost kill my son," said Marin's mother, Oleysa Justo.
"We are going to press charges because it was a criminal act," Morero said.
Some students say that those involved in a gang may have orchestrated what appears to be a random attack on Marin.
Recovery time for the teen expected to take about six weeks. That's how long his jaw will have to be wired shut.