CLASS ACTION

Felony Charges Filed In Schoolyard Attack On Gay Ninth Grader In OH

We told you about that poor 15-year-old gay kid in Ohio whose brutal classroom beating was captured on video and posted to Facebook. Well, felony charges were just filed against his assailant, Levi Sever.

Yeah, we suppose we shouldn’t mention Sever by name since, at 15, he’s still a minor. But A) it’s all over the media and B) he’s a complete hatemongering waste of space.

Sever, who initially just received a three-day suspension for beating his victim so badly the boy came away with a concussion and chipped tooth, will now go to juvenile court to answer for his crime.  The assault, which took place at Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, OH,  made news because it captured on cell-phone video and posted to Facebook.

The victim’s mother is calling for hate-crime charges because Sever had taunted her openly gay son for years, and posted homophobic epithets on his Facebook page in the days before the attack. “It’s my son,” she said, “and they did it just because he’s a homosexual.”

Authorities are looking into possible hate-crime charges in another incident in Ohio: A freshman at Westerville South High School in Westerville, OH, was being beaten and subject to anti-gay slurs simply because his sister is a lesbian.

“No discipline has been or will be administered for either student until the investigation is complete,” said a representative for the school, which doesn’t have a specific antibullying program in place.

Equality Ohio’s Kim Welter told WBNS 10, that “just suspending students isn’t the answer to bullying. We need to be doing a whole lot more talking about how we treat each other and that we respect each other and that no bullying is tolerated.”

We appreciate Welter and Equality Ohio’s intentions, but did any of us ever take anything important away from a school assembly or a chat with a guidance counsellor?

Based on the situation at Union-Scioto High, we think the threat of legal action—and possible jailtime—is what’s really needed to keep these thugs in line.

We might not be able to change what’s in their hearts but we can damn well make sure they’re scared straight.

 

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