Report: Student Attack May Have Been Racial

ATTLEBORO (WBZ) ― A middle school student was the victim of what appears to be a racial attack while riding the school bus home Friday afternoon, according to a newspaper report.

The Sun Chronicle reported that a seventh grade boy from the Wamsutta Middle School in Attleboro was allegedly held down, kicked and punched by a group of students when he wouldn't move from the back of the bus. The attackers were also uttering racial slurs to the boy, according to the paper.

The father of the young boy sent an e-mail to the school, saying their son was attacked because of the color of his skin, the paper reports.

School Business Manager Marc Furtado told the paper that they are taking the incident seriously "This is something that's not OK under any circumstances," he said.

Furtado told the paper that the incident started when the group of students told the seventh grader to leave the back of the bus, and when he refused, the group sat on him.

Furtado also told the Chronicle that one of the attackers later admitted to using a racial slur.

According to a police report obtained by the paper, the student was the victim of another attack that did not involve a school bus.

The students involved in the bus fight have had their bus privileges taken away.

Source: wbztv.com