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The hijab-wearing Afghan girl who was injured in the Paul Revere Middle School cafeteria on March 3 was not targeted because of her identity but because of previous conflict with the group of seven girls who attacked her, a Houston ISD spokesperson said Wednesday.

The incident was brought to the public’s attention by the Houston branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations after attorney Ahson Patoli, who is representing the girl and her family, told the organization about it. That notice included a short video of the attack and an assistant principal who fought his way through the crowd of screaming students and stopped it.

There were two other staff members who broke of the fight in the lunch room; they just weren’t evident on the recording, the spokesperson said.

Although the CAIR report alleged that three Afghan girls wearing hijabs were attacked, beaten and stabbed with pencils, the HISD spokesperson said it was only one victim — she was taken to the hospital where she stayed for several days and was placed in a neck brace. The mother of that girl, when meeting with school officials, asked that not only her daughter but the other two girls be moved to another school.

According to HISD, the girl has been offered a transfer which is currently being processed. HISDPD and the school investigated and determined seven girls were aggressors in the attack, all of whom have received disciplinary action in line with the HISD Code of Conduct, the spokesperson said.

This spokesperson also said that this was not a case of mistaken identity as the families thought might be the case. Instead, it was it due to an underlying conflict not because she was wearing an Afghan wearing a hijab.

The spokesperson said he didn’t know if school cameras were in place in the Paul Revere cafeteria but in any case the evidence of what happened was gathered in person.

William White, director of CAIR-Houston wrote in his Tuesday press release: “It is absolutely unacceptable for any student to be allegedly violently assaulted and then abandoned by the very institution that is supposed to protect them.

The HISD spokesperson stressed that the district is in complete agreement with White that what occurred at the school, for whatever reason, should not have happened.

As White phrased it: “These students came to this country in search of safety and stability—what they endured instead is a complete failure of accountability and compassion. HISD must act immediately to ensure their safety, support their healing, hold the students responsible accountable, and send a clear message that violence and bias will not be tolerated in our schools.”