Students rallied Friday in support of a special needs student who was assaulted Thursday by another student at West Ranch High School.
Disturbing video circulated on Twitter of a boy assaulting a special needs student during a break, while others looked on and laughed.
On Friday, students showed support for the victim by using the hashtag “Justicefor(name)” and “Standwith(name)” on social media networks. They also showed solidarity by coming to school in black clothing.
A screenshot of the video that went viral on Twitter shows the two students in an altercation.
“Many of the West Ranch students were upset by the behavior of their peers toward the special needs student and made threats to retaliate against them (Friday) during brunch,” said school board member Linda Storli. “The administration made a statement on (the school’s in-house television channel) to all students to allow the school and law enforcement to handle the situation.”
Sheriff deputies “provided additional coverage on campus throughout brunch and lunch (Friday) until the situation was quelled,” Storli said.
“The attacker was arrested (Friday) for the battery,” she said.
Students voiced their opinions on Twitter. One said: “Let’s make sure (the victim) knows we all have his back so he feels safe at our school and make sure we all make friends with him.”
Another said: “It’s OK (victim’s name omitted), you can come to school, you got the whole school on your side.”
No school officials witnessed the attack as it unfolded, but as soon as they knew about it, they contacted law enforcement, said SCV Sheriff’s spokeswoman Shirley Miller.
The special needs student was not seriously injured in the altercation, Miller said.
“He was was hit a few times on his back, and some wrestling was involved,” she said. “It is a criminal case, and the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station COBRA unit is investigating.”
COBRA is the Career Offenders, Burglary Robbery Assault unit.
West Ranch TV televised an interview Friday with Principal Mark Crawford. He reminded students that the incident was being handled by school officials and local law enforcement.
“This is not the time for retaliation,” Crawford said. “We are handling the situation with administration and … investigating it, even involving local law enforcement. What we want to make sure we are doing, as administration and as students, is that we are stepping in before a physical altercation happens.”
To see Crawford’s whole interview click [here].
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6 Comments
Heyyy I hope he gets sent to sylmar, I got buddies in there that can take care of him haha
Why are we condemning the aggressor? What about the droves of students standing by and recording it with their cell phones? What’s worse? Typical Stevenson Ranch pansies.
What a shame. A coward who beats up on a smaller special needs kid is being is being protected rather than identifying him to the public and kicking him out of school with that old PC refrain that the school and law enforcement will handle it. The bully is on campus funded by taxpayer dollars and this is what he’s learning? Scary to think what’s next with his behavior. Wanna bet no one will ever see Mr. Big Shot take on a husky football player like this? Leaving this guy on campus is a big liability to everyone. The ones laughing and filming rather than uniting and taking the bully down need a healthy lesson is civility. Shame on them. I hope the victim recovers in all ways and that good and decent fellow students will stand by him.
The local SCV school districts (especially Saugus Union School District) are well known for sweeping problems like bullying under the rug. Even if incidents of bullying or violence are reported, they do their best to deny the situation, minimize the seriousness of the situation despite multiple witnesses’ reports, and even intimidate witnesses (and the victims & their family) from advocating for the victims.
The local police have been known to discourage parents/ students from reporting incidents of school bullying and violence.
In this incident, the District couldn’t deny it happened because it was caught on camera. Students/parents keep capturing such incidents on video when you can.
Students & Parents must keep on protecting each other and advocate for each other. You can’t depend on the School Districts or local police to protect and do the right thing, you must advocate for it.
File a complaint with Civil Rights, with the U.S. Justice System, hire tort and/ or criminal attorneys if necessary.
These bully students and their parents don’t fear getting in trouble because they know that the School Districts will not do the right thing.
The School Districts don’t want to risk liability, so they do the best they can to cover things up, minimize the incident, and intimidate the witnesses.
Note how the District in this situation keeps harping about how students should have intervened instead of videotaping.
Excuse me, but without the video tape, this would have been another violent incident they could have covered up. Video taping and posting on the internet for all the world to see so that the School District cannot cover it up IS HELPING.
Also, it’s the law for the School Districts to prevent and deal with bullying, not the students. Look up the State and Federal Law on violence and bullying on campus.
Our family and other families we know have personally experienced the painful realization that the local SCV School Districts are not really there to protect your children and that the Local SCV Police usually go along with what the School Districts want and some even discourage parents/students from reporting the incidents.
Try going into the SCV police station and filing a incident about bullying or violence at school and see their reluctance to take a report.
The students and parents have to band together and advocate and report these kinds of incidents to the U.S. Civil Rights Department, U.S. Justice Department, State Attorney General, and hire attorneys to deal with such situations.
This video just makes me sick to my stomach. I am a father of a special needs teenager and this is just not right. Those kids laughing in the background should be ashamed of themselves. If I ever found out one of my kids just stood, watched and laughed…they would volunteering with special needs kids and grounded as long as I saw fit.
Shame on all of them.