A vicious beating that happened last week at Ames High School was shared on social media, sent an unconscious student to the hospital in an ambulance and has staff and parents within the district more than upset.
The beating comes less than two years after the Ames School Board voted unanimously to remove School Resource Officers from district buildings because the presence of police makes some students uncomfortable.
At the time of discussion regarding SRO removal, a school board member called Kelly Winfrey said they were concerned that “because it makes some people feel good to have SROs, that we won’t do the action that is necessary so that we can move forward into something that could be more effective.”
Ames students told the board that students of color feel “discomfort, silenced or even abused by other students and some staff members that should be protecting us.”
Take a look at what happened last week inside Ames High School, a building in a district that got rid of School Resource Officers:
***Viewer warning, the content may be considered hard to watch for some. There were three videos of the incident posted publicly, here they are.***
So, what happened?
The Iowa Standard learned through contacts within the Ames School District that a child with an IEP has allegedly been harassed for years at school by various individuals. A staff member said the child was “coerced” into saying a racial slur and after he said it, the group of alleged agitators “mercilessly beat” the child until he was unconscious.
Screenshots from a Reddit thread appear to show the postings of one of the students involved in the incident.
“He literally called me er 3 times hard r happy and proudly in my face in front of multiple black people what did you expect and also after he called us racial slurs he threw an apple at us and then proceeded to say you guys are bitches but your only saying this cause he white in my opinion and im black so I look like the bad guy but all ik is he called us (n-word) happy and proudly but you won’t understand,” the user wrote.
Another user asked if the individual thought they did anything wrong. They responded:
“I already said ik I did something wrong so what are you talking abt and yes i took it into my owns hand cause teachers never do noting abt it and also in middle school we warned him abt saying it what we did wasn’t right what he said wasn’t right so come on now so your literally saying him saying it was right it’s a raical slur ofc imma feel some type of way and he said it 3 times happily in my face so im sorry but he had it coming and im 15 and you’re probably in your 30’s tryna worry abt kids.”
The user responded again:
“I already said ik people was mad I don’t even care what ever happens it happens I already said I felt bad what more do yall want I can’t go back in time.”
According to communications shared with The Iowa Standard, a staff member from the district said there were “two serious fights” that day at Ames High School. A third was staved off.
The account provided by this staff member noted a “lone freshman student with an IEP was being harassed by a group of boys who have been picking on him since middle school.” According to the staff member, a boy was “aggressively taunting him” non-stop for a few minutes before others joined.
“The student being taunted replied, inappropriately, with the n-word,” the staff member said. “At least four students then jumped him as he sat at his booth and pummeled him mercilessly; until adults could peel the boys off of him. He had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance.”
The individual on Reddit who appears to have been involved in the beating said the student wasn’t “egged” on.
The staff member said these are “far from the only fights” this year and the fights appear to be escalating again. It is alleged that the victim was “verbally bullied and physically intimidated for several minutes” before saying the racial slur. According to the communications, the others were accused of spitting chewed apples on the victim of the beating.
The Iowa Standard reached out to the Ames School District on Friday, but hasn’t heard anything back from the district.
We did obtain a copy of an email from the superintendent, a person called Julious Lawson.
“Each one of the children in the videos is our own,” Lawson wrote. “It is our obligation to protect all students, which clearly from the videos we failed to perform, but it is also our mission to teach and support students whose character needs developed, so that they, too, can become productive citizens in our society. All of our students deserve development and protection.”
Lawson wrote he is “devastated” at what happened and noted students would be “disciplined according to policy.”
“Yet I am here to share our schools’ commitment to support each and every student regardless of their race, the content of their character, their disability, or any other factor in the lives they live,” Lawson wrote.
He added his “team” has been directed to investigate and modify the safety, security and monitoring practices that “enabled” the incident to occur.
When pressed about the absence of SROs in the district, Lawson wrote while he believes there are “a variety of reasons and missed opportunities” that enabled the violence to happen at school, he contends it is “not the school board who created those reasons or who missed those opportunities.”
The Iowa Standard was told one of the female teachers who helped break up the beating went to the hospital and returned to school the next day wearing a knee brace.
Sounds like the victim should sue all faculty and staff who failed to provide for his security. Also, the violent students should spend the rest of their “childhood” in a juvenile detention facility.
Several problems w this incident: 1. Why did it take 4 goons 2 atack a smaller individual. 2. Why did the beaters feel that a beatdown was an appropriate response 2 a slur? 3. Where was the adult supervision? 4.Who decided 2 remove guards? (Obviusly these kids are more like hoods than regular students). 5. Who are the racists here?
If that was my family member who was attacked by the uncivilized animals, my family would be flying in from all over the country to walk the animals home
Sure the animals have said plenty of slurs of their own before, they were looking to gang up on a smaller disabled child. Uncivilized
And people wonder what the hell has happened to society. Well this video shows you what liberal policys in School Systems has lead to…i hope the child’s parents press charges against the attackers and also sue the School District for failure to protect a child with disabilities. Maybe the far left school board, teachers, and community will learn a lesson. I doubt it though…………..End Times