Update On That Videotaped Beating Of A Gay Student

via Towleroad:

It seems that the school's initial report did not mention anything about the victim's sexuality, the Chillicothe Gazette reports:

"According to the initial report obtained Thursday by the Gazette, the two boys were on their way to a third-period class when they "bumped shoulders." The 15-year-old suspect told deputies he has a mental illness, that he "just zoned out," and didn't know why he punched Collins' son, according to the report.Collins' son sustained a black eye, a knot behind his ear, a chipped tooth and a possible concussion, Collins said.While Collins told deputies she thought the fight was motivated by her son's sexuality, the report indicates Osborne told the deputy he talked to the teacher and students in the classroom and no one reported the student saying anything about Collins' son's sexuality."

So, the bully has a mental illness and kinda blacked out and just happened to attack a boy he had been taunting on Facebook? That had better not wash with authorities, because then they would be the one's accused of suffering some sort of mental defect.

And by authorities, I mean school authorities, too, who are investigating any connection between the Facebook bullying and the assault. The victim's mother's claims that the fight was motivated by her son's sexuality and the Facebook posts that came to light just recently. Not quite so coincidentally, cell phone video was shot by the bully's cousin because chickenshit little asshats like to work in pairs.

Also, the attack--some folks are calling it a fight, but it was an attack--occurred during a class change and though there was a teacher monitoring the hall, he or she did not know what was happening. Nice monitoring.

The sheriff's office continues to investigate the motive, and county Prosecutor Matt Schmidt said his office is evaluating whether to file an assault or felonious assault charge:

"What people are failing to understand is there isn't an Ohio law to enhance it (if the assault was motivated by the victim's sexuality)," Schmidt said. He did note that there is a federal hate crime law, but that the federal district attorney would have to file the charge.

So, then i hope the mother contacts the federal district attorney, and I hope the state of Ohio opens up it's eyes and realizes that this was a Hate Crime, this was bullying at it's worst, and this cannot be tolerated on any level.

I want all those Ohio legislators and politicians and teachers and school administrators and district administrators and parents to ask themselves, "What if that was my son?"

And then do something about it. Before one more person dies.