WAKE COUNTY (WTVD) -- A Wake County high school student is in jail, charged with biting off a portion of another student's ear.
Amber Romero, 18, faced a judge for the first time Friday. She is charged with assault inflicting serious injury. She asked to have her $15,000 bond reduced, but the judge refused.
The judge denied her request because Romero had another outstanding assault charge.
Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison said Romero was headed home on a bus from East Wake High School last week when another student hit her with a lunch bag. He said that started a fight, and during the fight Romero bit off a large portion of the other girl's right ear lobe.
Contacted by phone at WakeMed, the other student's mother told ABC11 that her daughter was in surgery, apparently to repair the ear.
Romero's mother says her daughter regrets the incident.
"I really truly feel sorry for the family and we, me and my daughter, sincerely apologize and we both hate it that this happened to her. We really did. You know, I'm sorry that this happened. I just want to apologize to her and the family on the behalf of me and my daughter," Rynee Romero said after her daughter left the courtroom.
Rynee Romero says her daughter's current charge and the prior assault charge are all the direct result of her daughter being bullied at school.