Posted on 04/08/2008 10:21:28 AM PDT by redstates4ever
I don’t know why the hell a teacher is assigning “political protest signs” as homework, but that aside, the open-borders mob reaction to one girl’s project is absolutely unacceptable.(snip)
It was an assignment for history class–to make a protest sign for or against an issue, and Melanie said she chose illegal immigration. Her sign read, “If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration.” Somehow, Melanie said the sign got passed around lunch and angered a group of Latino students.
“I didn’t know any of these people,” she said. One young [student], she claimed, jumped on her back and he put her in a choke hold. “We have brick walls in the middle school and he slammed my face on the bricks.”
Melanie said a group of boys also threatened to rape and kill her. Eventually, the boys let her go and when she went for help, she was ordered back to class, and told she could not call her parents, she said.
“They handled this wrong, you know, they put a child back in danger,” said J.R. Bowers. “It was a very racially motivated crime.”
Texas student attacked (by Hispanics) for her anti-illegal immigration homework *not-a-caption ping*
Were the latinos (who jumped her) illegal aliens?
If so, send them home.
If not, at what do they take offense? She is protesting illegal immigration, which by definition is illegal and not immigration at all.
Paul Grippa is the principal at a different “Athens” middle school. Sorry for the mix-up.
Paul Grippa is the principal at a different “Athens” middle school. Sorry for the mix-up.
Apparently this started a week ago and is still in the investigation stages... From the Athens paper:
http://www.athensreview.com/local/local_story_098232401.html?keyword=topstory
AISD investigates alleged beating
Father: 8th-grade daughter’s project about illegal immigration sparked attack by 21 students
By Angela Weatherford
An Athens Middle School student is alleging she was attacked and beaten last week by 21 fellow students in response to a project for her history class regarding illegal immigration.
Melanie Bowers, a 13-year-old eighth grader, arrived at school last Monday, March 31, with her U.S. History project — an 8 1/2 x 11 “protest sign” — that reads, “If you love your nation, stop illegal immigration.”
Students were asked to create “protest signs” dealing with a past issue and a current one by history teacher Janet Skelton.
According to Bowers’ father, J.R. Bowers, Melanie was attacked in a hallway by a group of students on Friday because of the political message contained on the poster. Mr. Bowers said the attackers slammed her head into a brick wall and scraped her face down the side of the wall. The girl’s grandmother, Layne Wilhoite, told the Athens Review in a statement sent Monday that the group attempted to drag Melanie into a restroom and threatened to “rape and kill” her.
No teachers have come forward saying they witnessed the incident, according to Athens Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Fred Hayes.
After the incident, Mr. Bowers said his daughter told him she attempted to use an office phone to call him. Hayes said Assistant Principal Mark Castleberry looked her over and “did not see anything wrong with her.” Castleberry did not allow her to use the phone, and she eventually used her cell phone to inform her parents she had been attacked.
Melanie did not attend school Monday. Shera Bowers, her mother, said her daughter was checked out by a paramedic Saturday. She suffered a swollen face, various scratches and bruises.
“I’m upset that this happened to my daughter, and that she wasn’t allowed to call us,” Bowers said.
Hayes said the investigation into the alleged incident is ongoing.
He said Monday afternoon school officials were not aware of any allegations students threatened to rape the girl. The effort to identify those students is part of the ongoing investigation.
Mr. Bowers said his daughter identified the 21 students — 17 boys and four girls — by using a yearbook.
District police officers were on campus Monday as a measure of heightened security. District Police Chief Paul Reddic spent the day reviewing videos in an effort to catch a view of the alleged beating.
AMS Principal Louis DeRosa and Hayes acknowledge something happened to Melanie Bowers, but both have stopped short of saying she was assaulted. DeRosa says only a few students — rather than the 21 alleged by the Bowers — were involved.
“There was an incident in the hallway after lunch on Friday, April 4, between two or three students,” DeRosa said in a statement. “We have a camera system in the building. We are collecting information and statements from witnesses. This is all the information we have at this time.”
Hayes said the incident occurred between two cameras and in “a blind spot.”
“What they told me that they see is a group of students leaving an area,” he said, “and as they’re leaving they see two students turn around and look at what’s going on, but then they turn back around and keep on going. Typically what we have when we have a big fight is we have students who will run to an issue to see what’s going on. I’m not saying there was no disturbance. What I am saying is that we don’t know the extent of the disturbance at this point.”
He added that, based on his years in education, he thinks someone approached Melanie and said something inappropriate to “try to scare her.” He said if they didn’t hit her, they at least threatened to hit her.
When Melanie came to the office, Hayes said Castleberry took down information about the incident but refused to allow her to call home because he said it would “mess up the investigation.”
Hayes said Monday the district typically allows students to call their parents if they have requested to do so.
“We could have kept in a lot of problems if we would have allowed that to happen,” Hayes said of the decision to not let the student call her parents. “This was a student who was obviously distraught over a — whether she was jumped or not really doesn’t matter — she was distraught and she should have been allowed to call her parents.”
The Bowers family say they have contacted a lawyer and the FBI. A follow-up meeting between the family and school police officers was held Monday afternoon — a gathering that lasted two hours.
“There wasn’t really any new information,” Shera Bowers told the Review after the meeting. “(Chief Reddic) did say he was adamant about catching the people who did this.”
Several parents who contacted the Review Monday said they didn’t send their children to school on Monday because of threats posted on a Web site, MySpace, discussing the incident. Hayes said attendance levels did not appear to be abnormal.
Hayes also said the district will think twice about similar class projects in the future.
“I think that probably what we ought to look at is, if it’s a current issue we probably don’t need a protest poster made on that issue,” he said
You gave an email address in Ohio, not Texas. Better ask the admin to delete your post before some freepmail to the wrong principal makes us look bad!
“If not, at what do they take offense?”
You obviously are not acquainted with the Latino mindset. There are fourth and fifth generation Texans that consider themselves Mexican, not American.
And perish the thought if you ever insult Mexico or their mobs of “cousins.”
Wow, good thing.
Up here in the Northeast we have mostly Brazilian illegals. Great people, however they cause a ton of hits and runs, but thankfully not much personal violence.
Given the odds, that principal is probably an idiot, too......So if we e-mail that on by mistake ..........
I like the idea of the homework, get students interested in issues and learn to advocate them. I just don’t think the liberal teacher and administration expected that a student would advocate a non-liberal cause.
But those Mexican students need to be expelled and charged with assault and battery, with hate-crime sentencing.
Translation: We found out students might advocate non-liberal causes so we're going to stop it.
I will gaurantee there will be NO TALK of the girl’s free speech rights and NO TALK of this being a hate crime. Reverse the situation and have a latino student being beat up for having a sign with pro-illegal words and I’ll bet it’d be a different story. Why is there this constant double standard?
FYI - Athens Middle School Report Card, cant find larosa’s email yet.
http://www.psk12.com/rating/USindivphp/SchID_12376_year_2007.html#Review
Why is there this constant double standard?
Because we allow it.
I also guarantee that whether this happens or not is entirely the victim's choice, if enough support is provided from people like us; moral and financial.
I really think that this assignment is ill-advised. Anyone who has worked with kids for very long knows well that they often do not deal with disagreement on issues well. In their insecurity, they too often see it as personal attack.
Kinda like Democrats.
So it appears that nothing has changed the boys are still cowards because real men do not beat girls.
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