A school board in Ohio has launched an investigation into a male student’s vicious assault on a 10th grade girl on a school bus — but only after not informing her parents for days and once the video had exploded on social media.
The boy’s November 6th attack erupted as the school bus was taking students to the Mahoning Valley Community School in Youngstown. The high school teaches students from grades 7 to 12.
The video, reportedly filmed by another student, reveals the boy repeatedly punching and kicking the 15-year-old girl. If the attacker was an adult, the merciless beating would be considered felonious assault, even attempted murder because of the choke hold.
Neither school officials nor police have disclosed whether the incident represented a racial hate crime as the attacker is black and the victim is a white redhead. It also has not been disclosed what prompted the vicious assault.
Callous fellow students on the bus, however, don’t appear to be concerned about any of that.
They can be heard laughing at the beating even after the boy put the girl in a life-threatening chokehold, eventually prompting at least one observer to say “Chill” and somebody offscreen to come to the girl’s aid.
The age of the attacker has not been released. A juvenile can be charged as an adult under certain aggravating circumstances.
The girl was reportedly sent to the hospital later to be checked for injuries, the status of which also has not been publicly released by police or the district.
The incident occurred five days before the girl’s stepfather even found out about the attack. Apparently his stepdaughter was too traumatized to tell anyone or perhaps was fearful of retribution from the boy if she disclosed it.
“We found out everything happened yesterday, everything. We didn’t have a clue,” the girl’s stepfather told Youngstown’s WKBN Thursday.
The district released a statement to FOX 8 in Cleveland, apologizing for “the delay in promptly notifying parents of the incident.”
“While bus staff notified Community School administrators, the severity of the incident was not adequately communicated,” the district said. “We can share that no student injuries were reported following the incident.”
“We are reviewing both notification and transportation procedures to determine what happened and whether improvements are needed,” the release added.
The district also explained that during the assault, the bus driver was unable to pull over right away but did stop soon after the altercation began. A “bus aide” also on the vehicle at the time was put on leave “pending the outcome of the investigation,” the release stated.
The girl’s stepfather told WKBN that the victim’s parents should have been immediately notified by the school rather than finding out about it from phone footage on social media.
“This is a complete failure to communicate, protect. I don’t even have the words — there are so many to use,” he added.
Jennifer Merritt, the superintendent of the Mahoning Valley Community School, also released a statement about the incident, which was reported by news outlets.
“MVCS is concerned by public assertions that Mahoning Valley Community School has ignored this incident or failed to respond appropriately,” she said.
She continued, “Schools are bound by federal and state student confidentiality requirements that limit the public disclosure of individual student circumstances, disciplinary matters, and certain actions taken in response to incidents.”
She added, “The inability to publicly discuss these matters should not be mistaken for indifference or inaction.”
Police also have been tight-lipped about the incident, apparently because it involves minors who are typically given anonymity under juvenile crime laws.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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