Video of an Ohio gay teen being beaten
was caught on video and posted on Facebook.
The video, captured by another another
student with a cell phone, shows a teen waiting for his victim in a
classroom at Union-Scioto High School in Chillicothe, approximately
an hour south of Columbus. When the unnamed teen arrives, he is
repeatedly beaten as other students watch.
The boy's mother, Rebecca Collins, told
Columbus-based Fox affiliate WTTE that her son was being bullied
because he's gay.
“It turns my stomach,” Collins
said. “They did it just because he's a homosexual.”
The teen said nobody came to his
defense – “He just kept hitting me and nobody did anything” –
and that the bully had harassed him in the past, writing on the
teen's Facebook photo just two days earlier, “Hey fag, check out
the definition of a fag.”
Collins said her son suffered a
possible concussion and a chipped tooth.
The bully received a three-day
suspension. Collins said she's pursuing filing charges. (The video
is embedded in the right panel of this page.)
Gay rights group Equality Ohio told gay
blog Towleroad.com
that Union-Scioto has no policy in place that protects students based
on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“All students, regardless of their
sexual orientation or gender identity, have the right to a safe
school and education,” said Equality Ohio Executive Director Ed
Mullen. “Students should not fear verbal harassment,
cyber-bullying or physical assault in our public schools.”