Sunday, November 9, 2025
A 39-year-old woman was arrested for the alleged assault of a pregnant woman.
An Olympia Police Department report states that Sarah Ann Schroeder, of Olympia, was taken into custody after an altercation in the 300 block of Thurston Avenue NE.
Officers responded after a call about a woman being attacked around 12:20 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23. When officers arrived, Olympia Fire Department personnel were already at the scene providing medical aid to the injured pregnant woman.
According to police, witnesses said the suspect began striking the pregnant woman repeatedly. Witnesses also told officers that Schroeder stomped on the victim while she was on the ground.
The victim stated that she was walking when the suspect suddenly assaulted her.
“She had been walking near Thurston and Franklin when Schroeder suddenly approached her, began yelling, and then assaulted her without provocation. She confirmed Schroeder punched her in the face, forced her to the ground, and stomped on her ribs and stomach even after she said she was pregnant,” a responding officer said in the police report.
The victim and the witnesses identified the suspect as the aggressor in the incident.
The victim was transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia with visible facial injuries, swollen eyes and complaints of rib pain. Medical staff later confirmed significant swelling and bruising, but no fractures or internal bleeding.
Schroeder was booked into Thurston County Corrections Facility for second-degree assault and an outstanding felony warrant from Thurston County.
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Claire
A drug-induced assault? **** yeah.
Thursday, September 4 Report this
SecondOtter
This isn't 'second degree assault. It's attempted murder of a fetus if nothing else.
Oh, dear, sending the victim to Providence is only adding insult to injury. I wouldn't take a dog to that hospital.
Thursday, September 4 Report this
PatMer
SecondOtter, the attacker is likely being booked now for second degree assault, to get her into jail. She can be charged for more offenses later for this attack.
Friday, September 5 Report this
JW
The 300 block of Thurston Ave is basically a Mad Max zone of drugged out transients. We all know this was one of them. Again, the policies of the city leadership results in harm to the community.
Friday, September 5 Report this
Mugwump
Psychosis, organic or drug-induced, can make victims of the disease lash out verbally and/or physically as they react to perceived threats arounds them, or visual or aural hallucinations. Psychosis is a state of suffering that a civilized society would not allow to go untreated as it is a physical threat to both the sufferer and those around them. How we treat our homeless population is barbaric as it enables unhealthy behavior in the sufferer and those who would exploit the homeless for their own gain.
Friday, September 5 Report this
LindaD
This is how we turn our jail into a mental hospital. What’s the point of putting a total nut job in a cage? It gets them off the street for a while but we’re going to toss them right back on the street where they will be just as nuts.
Then we toss them back in jail when they do something else then they do enough to go to prison where we pay the private prison system to make them worse until we turn them back onto the streets.
We used to have mental hospitals where we sent people rather than jail. They were awful but maybe it’s time to try again?
Friday, September 5 Report this
SecondOtter
That's a good point, Linda W. Back in the Carter-Reagan era, the mental hospitals were closed and the patients put out on the street. When asked who is going to take care of all these sick people, the Administration said, "The churches." While the mental hospitals were horrible, at least the people were off the street. The reasoning behind closing mental hospital was "hospitalizing a mentally ill person was 'demeaning', it was violating their civil rights. " That was gaslighting. Closing them was a way to save the government money, nothing more.
But in this case, no one said the assaulter was mentally ill, or on drugs, no, to me it sounds like she was a bully with a mad on and she was going to take it out on the first person she judged wouldn't retaliate. Notice she didn't attack a man.
Saturday, September 6 Report this
Mugwump
SecondOtter, Just to clarify ...
The large-scale closing of state-run mental institutions in the United States is tied to the policy of “deinstitutionalization”, which unfolded over several decades but was most strongly driven by federal actions in the 1960s and 1980s.
John F. Kennedy’s Administration (1961–1963):
Kennedy is often seen as the president who launched modern deinstitutionalization. In 1963, he signed the Community Mental Health Act, which aimed to replace large state psychiatric hospitals with smaller, community-based treatment centers. The intent was reform and modernization, but many of the planned community facilities were never adequately funded or built.
Ronald Reagan’s Administration (1981–1989):
Deinstitutionalization accelerated under Reagan. As governor of California in the late 1960s, he had already signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (1967), which made it much harder to commit people involuntarily to state hospitals. Later, as president, Reagan shifted federal responsibility for mental health care funding back to the states by cutting federal mental health budgets and converting categorical grants into block grants. Many states responded by reducing funding for institutions, leading to widespread closures without enough community support structures in place.
So, while Kennedy’s administration began the process with the goal of reform, the Reagan administration is most often associated with the widespread closures of state-run mental institutions, largely due to funding cuts and policy shifts.
So ... Not Carter.
(Results of ChatGPT search)
Saturday, September 6 Report this
SecondOtter
Thank you, Mugwump, for clarifying this for me. I wasn't quite sure of which administration it was, but I do remember the fall out when the hospitals were closed.
Sunday, September 7 Report this