Assault on a Minor Charge

My question involves criminal law for the state of: TN
I am a senior in high school and I just turned 18 on October 24th. There is this kid at my school who is the same height as me but has more body mass. I went out with his ex gf and then one day out of the blue he started messaging me saying that i ganged his cousin at the center and him and his brother made many threats to me. Well, when school came back around he never said anything to me. When his ex gf and i broke up words were exchanged between myself and her and then he jumped into it out of nowhere. He made began to make threats and talked his trash. Well one day I was walking out of a teacher's class and he was walking in. I continued down the hall and i heard him behind me. He and his friend approached me screaming about a tweet i had tweeted. I told him numerous times that i was going to class and even turned and walked away. Things got loud behind me and i turned to see what was going on and he continued to pursue me so i ended up punching him square in the face. The guy is bigger than me and i only hit him out of fear of getting my butt whipped. I did not whoop the guys tail and he didn't whoop mine either. I felt the need to defend myself because i did not want him and his friend to jump me or hit me from behind. The way this guy talks truly scares me because i have never dealt with a person who threaten me continuously and cant give me a reason. Well after the fight i found out that the guy is 16 about to turn 17............ I am very scared of what is to come because i have never been in trouble and i plan on going away to college and an assault on a minor charge is not going to allow me to get any good job.... He continued to threaten me even after the fight and said that if i don't fight him again he will press charges on me... I took screenshots of all of the conversations that his brother and himself had with me via text, facebook, and twitter just to show that he was the threat. I really don't know what to do and i'm actually very scared! I have never been in trouble and i was at the right place at the wrong time... I will post pictures of the convos if needed...

Unfortunately for you, self defense laws don't allow you to issue a pre-emptive strike. By your own admission, you hit the kid first when he had only been following you. Use of force may be a defense when meeting other force from an attacker - but when no force has yet been levied against you, and you strike, then YOU are the attacker.

If you're having issues with this person, have you taken the APPROPRIATE steps to deal with the problem, such as:

1) notifying school officials that you are being threatened

2) notifying local law enforcement that you are being threatened

3) NOT communicating with the persons involved (or are you being one of those idiots who insists on arguing/texting/tweeting back?)

4) using the features of your devices and accounts to block such communications? - because if you are ENGAGING the person in conversation, you're going to be seen by the courts as fanning the flames yourself and willfully participating, rather than being harassed

You're an adult, he's a minor. That means you have a lot more to loose than he does. You need to keep on both the school and law enforcement about his threats, otherwise exactly what he said will come true: he'll egg you on and get you to make ANOTHER mistake in getting physical with him - which could result in serious long term problems for you. So do what you can to stay away from him, STOP COMMUNICATING WITH HIM, and bring any threats, harassment, or similar issues to BOTH school officials AND local law enforcement.

So basically what your telling me is that if he presses charges my life is over as I know it. :( and yes i must admit that I had been arguing back but not threatening only saying that I don't care about him.

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Quoting wootie_5

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So basically what your telling me is that if he presses charges my life is over as I know it. :( and yes i must admit that I had been arguing back but not threatening only saying that I don't care about him.

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I'm telling you that if he files a police report, yes, there is the possibility that the state will file a criminal charge against you. There is also possibility that they won't. Even if a report is made AND a charge is filed, that doesn't automatically mean there's a conviction. Unless you plead guilty, the state still has to make a case against you and a judge or jury find you guilty. So the reality is that him making the report doesn't automatically mean "life is over as you know it". Remember too that people who threaten to kick other people's butts tend to be the people who would rather do anything other than purposefully invite contact with law enforcement, so you have to evaluate how likely this kid is to want to involve police (who will then involve his parents, the school, etc.)

Your life is not over. You have a choice now to learn from this incident.

You do need to learn to react better. Always let the other person throw the first punch - then you throw the second and last one. Once he is on the ground, it's over. Don't continue. And during the whole time, be yelling out "stop now!" and yelling to any other students for a teacher or police to be called.

Cease all contact with him. Block him from your phone, twitter, facebook, email....etc.

I would report the threats to the school and the police, just to have on record.

Thank you guys! I have actually deleted my Twitter and Facebook account because multiple people have been getting on talking crazy to me... I think that we are going to have a meeting at school when i return from my suspension so i will show his mom and the staff at my school the messages and what not. Wish me luck! :/