Beating Of Boy On School Bus Called Hate Crime

GARY, Ind. (Post-Tribune) ― A 14-year-old boy suffered a severe beating by fellow students while riding on his school bus on Wednesday in Gary, Indiana - in what is being investigated as a hate crime.

As Angel Garcia recovers from Wednesday's school bus beating, Gary school officials announced Friday they are investigating the attack.

"Our district in no way condones racial discrimination or any acts of negative behavior," Superintendent Mary Steele-Agee said in a written statement.

Garcia, 14, an eighth-grader at Tolleston Middle School, was attacked by a bus load of fellow students Wednesday afternoon, his mother said.

The victim told Cpl. Len Miller students "surrounded him ... said they would allow no whites at the school or bus," according to a police report.

The report, which classifies the beating as a hate crime, indicates there were about five assailants, while the school system describes the incident as "a fight with three neighborhood students who Angel called his friends."

Garcia suffered a broken nose, black eye and numerous bruises.

His mother, Maylee Garcia, said she moved her family to the west side of Gary from East Chicago, Ind. to get away from a bad neighborhood.

But shortly after school began, her son balked at riding the bus. On Wednesday morning, she went to Tolleston School and spoke with a vice principal and two security guards about the harassment her son has endured since the classes began.

He was attacked on the bus ride home that afternoon.

One teen was arrested Thursday. Juvenile division detectives hoped to view a security tape from the bus to identify other attackers.

Source: CBS2Chicago