High School Gay Basher In Chillicothe May Receive Harsher Punishment
New news from Unioto High School in Chillicothe, OH, where an alleged gay bashing was recorded on a cell-phone camera.
As Andy reported on Thursday:
A student at Union-Scioto High School ... was brutally beaten this week by another student for being gay. Class members watched as the bully waited for the student to arrive in the classroom, grabbed him, pushed him to the ground and punched him in the face several times.
Originally, the incident earned the bully a mere three-day suspension, even though the victim sustained dental damage and a possible concussion. Now that the video of the beating has gone viral, Unioto principal Jim Osborne says the penalty may change. "The discipline has been revisited based on the ongoing investigation and in light of the new evidence," Osborne told the Chillicothe Gazette.
Presumably, some of the "new evidence" to which Osborne refers is the recording of the beating. Yet the principal also told the Gazette that the student who made the recording has herself been disciplined. Whether that's because she was in league with the bully, or because her surveilling has caused Unioto High so much embarassment, Mr. Osborne declined to say.
Regardless, the young documentarian's mother has temporarily removed her from school. The bully is still serving his suspension, and may face worse. According to the Gazette:
Ross County Prosecutor Matt Schmidt said he has asked the sheriff’s office to investigate further and get medical records for the victim if they exist ... The extent of the injury and the medical records are needed for Schmidt to help determine if the assault meets the criteria to be considered a felony. His office is waiting on charging the juvenile until the additional investigation is completed.
If you haven't seen it yet, you can view portions of the cell phone vid, as well as an interview with the victim's mother, AFTER THE JUMP ...
@ BRANDON K. THORP please step back from your 'chit-chat ' with those who comment. Be a journalist, not a 'host'.
Posted by: my2cents | Oct 29, 2011 7:46:53 PM
HRC needs to use some of that cocktail party cash and hire a vicious lawyer for this one. Of course that won't happen. The community likes to be sentimental about these acts, but not to the point of actually doing anything to stop them.
Posted by: Wilberforce | Oct 29, 2011 7:51:57 PM
@ "Justice" I beg to differ. Let's be clear about victimhood: bullies --no, I'll use an accurate term: "bashers" are very seldom victims of anything. Bashers are people who enjoy making others feel pain. Bashers are pretty normal kids who feel their privileged position (typically white, male, and middle class) grants them authority to abuse "suspect classes" and those of lower status. Bashers are people who differ from the rest of us, largely, in the fact that they think violence is acceptable. Being a teenager is difficult; I'll give that much to any school-aged basher. But victim status? Not.
Posted by: Chuck Mielke | Oct 29, 2011 8:09:47 PM
@Brandon
Ummmm...if someone grabbed my ass and I had the physical strength to do it...I would throw them into a locker.
NO ONE has a right to touch anyone else at all without their permission. NO ONE.
However...the punishment should also "fit the crime". IF (because I don't know what happened in this situation) a butt was grabbed then a punch or locker shove is appropriate.
NOT:
Stomping
Relentless beating
Kick them while they're down.
There is a difference between self-defense and going apeshit on someone. This video looked like someone going apeshit.
I personally...don't like to be touched by people unless I invite them to. I have a ...history with this and feel very strongly about it.
Posted by: Rin | Oct 29, 2011 8:25:31 PM
Chastity,
I was born in Akron, OH, and have lived in Akron, Alliance, Springfield, Norwalk, Dayton, Grove City, Mansfield, Wintersville and Steubenville... I attended all four years of high school in Fredericksburg, PA, with classmates who were predominantly of Amish descent. I'm very familiar with the actions of people in small, rural areas - as well as their attitudes toward community gender standards and sexual morals.
Reading your comment... it reads more as though you are attempting to manipulate the comments section of a pro-gay news blog to establish some sort of justification for the assault of this particular student.
So your son had his butt grabbed? You think slamming the butt-grabber into a locker was an appropriate response? Is your son on one of the school's sports teams? What's the appropriate response, then, if your son should happen to make a "good play" in his sport of choice, and the other teammates smack his ass? Or jump on him, legs spread around your son, while they hug him close? How about in the locker room, where towel snapping is just a normal part of the routine? Should someone who's snapped a towel be pummeled against the shower walls?
Or a better question, Chastity: Do you think anyone here, especially, after looking at the language you use when writing, and your inability to sustain a credible narrative, actually believes you?
I'm betting you're, actually, the assailant's girlfriend/girlfriend wannabe who's heard second-hand from the basher in this incident that a continuing commentary on a gay website that, seemingly, supported his actions could be beneficial to him in court... such is the precedent set when some gay men, in commentary at gay news/gay blog sites, showed sympathy over the background of Lawrence King's killer.
Here's what I think needs to happen: This boy needs to be arrested for assault with great bodily harm and assault with the intent to kill. A District Attorney needs to charge this kid as an adult, so this kid loses the protection of juvenile anonymity. At that point, the unblurred version of this cellphone video can be released... and the entire world can see for themselves what violence is perpetrated upon gay youth - in America, no less - daily, with the assent of principals and parents, who believe the appropriate response to an ass grabbing... or just a faggot breathing the same air... is to bring down a case of "whoop-ass" on the gay kid, and, hey, if he dies... just one less queer, huh?
Posted by: Eric Payne | Oct 29, 2011 8:44:50 PM
I'm sorry. My last comment, about the community being too sentimental, was out of line. I'm still angry at our non response to hiv in the 80s. But maybe it's time to put that away.
Posted by: Wilberforce | Oct 29, 2011 9:17:25 PM
An earlier poster wrote that "Bullies are the real victims...". WTF??? Really? So, let's play the victim cards as they beat up others and bully others? Where is Common Sense, People? What kind of person would write such a trite and mindless thought? "Bullies are the real victims". Feel sorry for the bullies, they didn't mean it. They're only the victims. Honestly. Send them to prison! The bully made a conscious choice to beat up another person. Victim, my ass! With people like this poster who are so ready to let the bullies get off with sympathies, I say, you are part of the problem!
Posted by: Reggie | Oct 29, 2011 10:01:48 PM
Has anyone asked this principal the obvious question of: "if you're saying the video was 'new evidence' making you rethink the mere three day suspension, could you please explain then why, even without the video, you only gave a three day suspension to someone who caused dental damage and a possible concussion?"
Posted by: bobbyjoe | Oct 29, 2011 11:20:00 PM
@Eric Pain let me tell you something you small minded twit! I do not condone anyone being beaten to a pulp and I'll tell you something else. I was working a resturant in town and had a cook slap me on the ass so slammed him in the face with a plate! NO AND I MEAN NOONE has the right to touch another person's body period. My son is not on any sports team he is just a regular everyday kid. I have taught him to keep his hands to himself unless it is to defend himself, but this young man that is openly gay thinks it alright to SEXUALLY HARASSE OTHERS! I will not sit here and have you BASH my son for defending an unwanted sexual advance. I am a true believer that everyone should be treated equal and you will see who I am, because I will be front and center at the emergency school board meeting that is being called this coming week so remember my name you narrow minded idiot! Oh and by the way my name is spelled CHASITY! Oh and another thing as the daughter of an openly gay father in the 80's I was subjected to harassment from student as well as teachers. When I 14 a brick was thrown through are front room window with the word "Faggot" written on it. When my father fired someone at work he would have to HIDE his car because it would vandalized. I am all to familiar with what happens in a small town with close minded people, but I will be damned if my SON or DAUGHTER will be sexually harassed at school whether it be a boy or a girl!
Posted by: Chasity | Oct 29, 2011 11:30:00 PM
@Chasty,
I apologize for incorrectly spelling your name. I did not mean any disrespect for not addressing you by the name under which you posted your comment on Towleroad.
Funny, though, how you were, intentionally, disrespectful toward me. "Pain" for "Payne." Gee... I'm 52, "Payne" is my real last name, and I've never, ever had that substitution done to my name. My, how originally clever you are!
But your immediate response to anger, and statement that I am "bashing (your) son" shows the mindset in which he was raised (at this point, I'm going to figure you're a single parent), that an immediate response from you (or yours) in a given situation is one of violence.
You worked at a restaurant, had your ass grabbed so you slammed the grabber in the face with a plate, huh?
I hope you were fired for your inappropriate response; if I were the man who grabbed your ass and received the plate-in-the-face, I would have immediately called the police. Yes, we both might have been going to jail - as we both should have - but guess which one of us would be fined, and which would be doing time, either at the county or state level?
What I was saying is there is an appropriateness of response that serves as a legitimate "self defense" action. The purposeful infliction of egregious bodily harm for an "ass grab" is an escalation of the situation, not an appropriate, equal, response (the appropriate, equal, response would be to ass-grab back... or call the police to have the ass grabber charged with assault - assault being defined, in most jurisdictions, as a simple "unwanted touching.")
If you're going to be attending the emergency school board meeting, great. I'm assuming news media from the Big 3 (Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus) will all be there - I'll have to go to Dayton's Channel 7 to look for clips... hmmm... hadn't thought of Channel 7 in years. I'm sure Don Wayne is long gone by now... he was ancient 30 years ago!). If you're going to be the one down front, screaming... and what I'm absolutely certain you'll be screaming is some variant of: My son was sexually harassed by this pervert! If the school had kicked him out when I complained, this wouldn't have happened."
As for your 'daughter of a gay man who died of AIDS" claptrap... I don't believe you.
Posted by: Eric Payne | Oct 30, 2011 12:58:02 AM
This kid should go to jail for this act of brutality, if by chance he doesn't he should then, at least, get beat just as savagely.
Posted by: Jiff363 | Oct 30, 2011 8:04:25 AM
Sorry, "Chastity," I don't believe a word you've said. You sound like a standard issue concern troll trying to derail the conversation. Go back to troll school because it's not working. This small freshman student is really a rapacious gay butt-pincher and sexual harasser? Uh huh. Right.
And even if the attacker wasn't shouting derogatory remarks WHILE beating this kid, he DID post a homophobic comment on the boy's Facebook page just a few days before the attack. Boom. There you go. Motive.
So piss off.
Posted by: Caliban | Oct 30, 2011 9:53:32 AM
I have never seen more narrow minded people in my life. I have allot of gay and lesbian family members as well plenty of friends. I am going to address some of the derogatorys statements made in a few of these post's. First Mr.Payne my full name is Chasity M. Betts-Archer I have been married for 20 years and I have been with my husband for 23. As for the statement toward my father I do not know ANYONE who would make a lie up like that. He was one of the first 1,000 people to die in Ohio from A.I.D.S. I watched a 240 pound man waste away to 123 pounds when he passed. Then I had to watch it happen again to his long time parnter (WHO I thought of as a second father) a year after that it's a devestating horriable awful disease! After watching my father's husband Bill pass I had a nervous breakdown I was 19 at the time. Any person who would make such a lie up is mentally ill to say the least. further more the cook SLAPPED me on the ass so I slammed him in the face with the plate out of reflex I was one starteled and two humiliated. My own husband knows better to do something like that in front of other's it was a matter of RESPECT something I see from your post's you lack a lot of! As far as my son is concerned he is friend's with a lot homosexual boy's and girl's, because believe it or not there are plenty of other gay children who attend this school and they are taking a stand about this boy several of them plan to speak at the school board meeting. Not only did this boy grab my son's butt he also said he would like to FINGER IT! I left the comment out of my orginal post because it was a disgusting remark to make to a anyone much less a child. As far as the remark about me being a troll that actually made me laugh. I have been called worse by better people! Yet we have still gotten of the REAL SUBJECT! First off it is a RUMOR nothing more that the boy posting a homophobic comment about this child and it is also unconfirmed the young man who was the victim ever even went to the hospital. If you don't believe me call the Chillicothe gazette or the Ross County Sheriff's office. This is where I have retrieved my information. Yet still we are off topic. The real topic here is young man who was VICIOUSLY ASSAULTED! As I said in my original post the boy who did this should be punished to the fullest extent of the law! All I know is this was NOT ABOUT THIS CHILD BEING GAY! I would be first in line screaming it is a hate crime if I believed so. I know what it is like to be bullied and to an outcast, because of something different. My dad said something once when he picked me up from school after a fight I had with another student making remarks about his lifestyle " He said Chas you can't fix stupid and you have to overlook others ignorance, because they have not been taught any better" mind you this was 1985 and things have made a step in the right direction. However Mr.Pyne unlike you he believed and taught me if another person touches you in away that is inappropriate to say the least you defend yourself! I have raised my children not to look at race, religion,or sexual orientation they are to treat all people as equals! As far as I am concerened my father would be damn proud of my children if he was still with us. So dust off your T.V. or hell Mr.Payne since you know Ohio so well come on down to Chillicothe it is only 50 miles south of Columbus. Then you can see for yourself that the school my children attend is not full of homophic gay bashing children! Oh I think you should read yesturday Chillicothe Gazette it states that the victim has has to leave two other school in this community. Not because he was gay, but due to his own conduct! All I am asking from anyone of you is to understand that there is WAY more to this story then any of us truely know and not to be so fast to judge anyone until all the facts are present and accounted for. Thank you and I hope everyone has a wonderful Sunday afternoon. Mr.Payne I do apologize for the misspelling of your name and if you have a facebook page look me up and I will add you as a friend then you will see what I am saying is the truth! Take care and God Bless to all!
Posted by: Chasity | Oct 30, 2011 10:57:06 AM
I feel like this has gone a bit off topic...The fact is a child was savagely beaten in a classroom full of onlookers with no type of supervision and whether it's because he was gay or a chronic ass grabber (which to me seems highly unlikely), the bully, basher, attacker or whatever you'd like to call him should not just get 3 days suspension....It's clear to me he has no regard for school authority or the life of another student be he gay, straight etc etc....at the least he should be expelled and remanded to military school or some sort of place that will give him an outlet for that anger and give him discipline...
Posted by: Lauren | Oct 30, 2011 12:42:01 PM
Typical school administrator: 'get over it'...'boys will be boys'...'be a man'
Until a couple of hundred thousand people see the video...then the principal gets tough.
This situation doesn't just happen to gay students...but to about every student who 'doesn't fit in'. It would be very helpful if by-standing students would video bullying whenever it happened and post it.
A lot of school principals would be falling all over themselves to stop the bullying and possible lawsuits.
Posted by: chuck | Oct 30, 2011 12:45:49 PM
ignore "Chasity" - troll fake nonsense.
Posted by: Little Kiwi | Oct 30, 2011 12:58:56 PM
@Chasty,
Sorry, I still don't buy it.
You entered a conversation about a high school gay basher and, immediately, attempted to turn the spotlight onto your claim the young man who had been bashed, prior to his being bashed, grabbed your son's ass and, though you complained about the ass grabbing, nothing was done about it.
Even had you not sought, and in subsequent postings reinforced, the attention should not be on an alleged criminal assailant and his victim -- that's the way it read... a comment-posting equivalent of MadTV's Stuart and his insistent "Look at what I can do!".
If you are the child of a gay man who has passed away, my condolences to you. I lived in Ohio during the early years of the AIDS crisis; I know first-hand how the Ohio bureaucracy dealt with AIDS in those early years (Jefferson County actually turned down state/federal funds for an AIDS program, with the county government publicly stating they had no homosexuals, so such programs weren't necessary).
However, your insistence on continuing that labeling of your father, even second hand... you don't say "I am the daugher of a gay man." You say (emphasis mine): "... as the daughter of a gay man WHO DIED OF AIDS..."
I think, Chasty, you still have issues around both your father's sexual orientation and his death. I'm convinced of that even more when you attempt to bolster your bona fides even more when you recount the altercations in which you've participated due to your father's "lifestyle."
If what you say about your father is true, Chasty... he didn't have a "lifestyle." He had a life. He's dead; having passed away as a result of a communicable illness. Unfortunately, too little was known about this pathogen at the time your father took ill to do much to combat it - primarily because too many in positions to assign morality to a viral infection felt politically bound to assign morality to a lethal contagion. If there's truly a hell, may Ronald Reagan be on a roasting spit, forever.
But I digress. The importance here is not whether your son was ass grabbed by this gay kid, or whether you were justified in your violence in the past against those you perceive as being sexually harassing. The focus now should be on this teenage assailant and the punishment for his actions.
He should be arrested, charged as an adult and, if found guilty, sentenced to more than a year's incarceration... guaranteeing he'll be sent to state prison where he's not likely to be the one laying in wait.
Posted by: Eric Payne | Oct 30, 2011 2:54:08 PM
Mr. Pain I wrote I was the daughter of a gay man who died of A.I.D.S. in 1990, because I knew people would ask me what his take on the situation is. It is much easier for me to say he has passed away and what took his life. As you stated Ohio in particular turned down funding for some of the help that could have made a HUGE difference with this disease. I believe people back then were afraid, ignorant, and thought oh well it’s one more dead queer (by the way I hate the word queer it implies something unusual). You should know what I am talking about you lived through that time. As far as coming to grips with my father's sexual orientation I always have! He raised me until CPS stepped in and told him I could no longer live with him. The idiots thought I would contract the disease so I got sent live with a mother who loathed me. I have not and never will get over losing him, he was truly my world and the fact he passed away at the age of 39 breaks my heart. He deserved to live many, many more years. So yes Mr. Pain I believe Ohio was and still is a bias state there is not a doubt in my mind. If offended you by use lifestyle as a way of making a point, it was not done on purpose. I use this term because every one of us has a lifestyle we live, it was not meant to be a derogatory term.
Now back to the topic at hand I was told today by a local attorney I am friends with told me as of tomorrow the young man will be charged with felonious assault with intent to do grave bodily injury. I do not know as yet whether special circumstances will be applied if they are it will be deemed a hate crime. As I have stated since my first post this young man should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Here is the problem I have with calling it a hate crime before the evidence show is it is one. Just because you are homosexual and get beat up in high school does not automatically make it a hate crime. There are fights in every school around the world everyday when you are dealing with adolescents who are hormonal and their brains are not fully grown.
Everyone has the right to voice their own opinion I thought when I ran across this site I might give you another side of the story. As I have said before there are two sides to every story then there is the truth. There will be a trial and all the facts will come out. Then we all will know the whole truth not what we hear and see second hand.
Posted by: Chasity | Oct 30, 2011 4:22:46 PM
Chasity:
You need to reread Macbeth Act 3 Scene II. That is if you ever made it as far as 11th grade English Lit.
Posted by: chasmader | Oct 30, 2011 8:48:33 PM
What it all comes down to, whether one is a gay man tired of the relentless hatred from a great many straight people or someone in ohio with a past history that is unverifyable and ultimately utterly irrelevant, is that unless one is defending himself from an attack, this kind of assault is a serious crime and should be treated as such. Hate crime or no, this dangerously violent individual is not someone who should be in the community unsupervised. Chastity may be a troll, or she may be telling the truth, or more likely somewhere in between. But is a felony caliber beating is considered a proper response to getting your ass felt up then there would be about 90% fewer straight men in the world today. It doesn't matter what his motivation was. Arrest him, and punish him.
Posted by: the milkman | Oct 30, 2011 9:19:03 PM
There is no justification for what happened here. The school seems to suffer an ineffective administration. I would agree that lawsuits should fly from the victim targeting principal, school board, school system and the bully should get 10 years behind bars in an adult lockup. That way he can learn first hand, up close and personal, some lessons of life.
Posted by: stanhope | Oct 31, 2011 9:23:51 AM
Law professor David Groshoff has written (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1782056) and will be presenting at the University of Maryland School of Law's anti-GLBT bullying Symposium in the next several weeks (http://www.law.umaryland.edu/faculty/conferences/detail.html?conf=117), two recent Supreme Court decisions have arguably paved the way for kids in similar situations to bring guns to school -- and lethally use them -- for self-defensive purposes.
Posted by: Law Geek | Oct 31, 2011 3:44:32 PM
I want to say that this is SILLY I just graduated from Unioto last year. We have never had a thing against gays. My brother who knows both boys involved said that the one who attacked just wanted to get suspended. He didnt beat the kid up because he was gay!!! The news takes every little detail and twists it out of contexts. Maybe someday we can trust the news again.
Posted by: Ricky | Nov 17, 2011 8:46:37 AM
The irony is that we see (presumably str8) soldiers dancing with each other in musical videos they put online all the time.
Posted by: Coach Outlet | Apr 23, 2012 5:18:31 PM
I heard the gay kid would go around telling the straight boys they have a nice ass. He was asking fro trouble doind stupid stuff like that straight guys dont like that from a gay kid.
Posted by: dustin | Apr 30, 2012 2:00:00 PM