Claim: A football player at Lancaster High School severely beat a gay student but was not charged with a crime.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, September 2012]
This is all over the internet today. Is this true?
Yesterday a 17 year female, who attends Lancaster High School in California, was beaten by a football player, on school grounds, for being gay. After receiving over a dozen blows to her jaw, head, eye and head, all he received was a
FYI : CBS, KCAL 9 news are running the story tomorrow at 10pm
Origins: According to a report by Deputy Mike Rust with the Lancaster Sheriff’s Station of the
The deputy immediately went to the cafeteria area and saw a large group of students. School security was detaining at least two students. School security personnel told the deputy that the two students had been fighting so the deputy began an investigation into the incident. The investigation, which included talking to many student witnesses, revealed that the two students had been part of a large group of students who were all standing in a lunch line in the cafeteria area. The 15-year old male student (suspect/victim) had complained to a female student about her cutting into the line, instead of waiting. A 17-year old female student (suspect/victim) who was standing nearby, heard the Both the 15-year old male student and The deputy reported that the 15-year old did not appear injured and the The deputy immediately notified the parents of both of the students, and released each of them to the custody of the parents. Both students were suspended by the school.
Shortly after noon on Tuesday,
Deputy Rust provided additional details reported by the Antelope Valley News:
Another student stopped his fall. Suddenly the two girls began to punch the younger student. The girl who pushed the boy was dressed as and appeared to be a boy and was more than The young boy defended himself and fought back, thinking he had been attacked by another boy. After a couple of punches were thrown, the school security arrived and stopped the fight. The school's deputy from the Lancaster Sheriff's Station cited the two students and released them into the custody of their parents, Rust said. "After he found out that it was a girl, he was very remorseful," Rust said. Deputies are still interviewing the 40 students who witnessed the scuffle. However, so far all have agreed on what happened, Rust said. Meanwhile, a flurry of false statements about what happened by people who live as far away as Kansas have bombarded the internet. The school, the sheriff's station and local news media have been flooded with calls from people asking if the postings on Facebook and other social media sites are accurate. The young man has received several threats against his life from people who have read the inaccurate statements and are unaware of the facts.
The scuffle began shortly after noon when a student let someone cut in line. The 14-year-old boy told the girl she shouldn't do that. After words were exchanged, her friend, a 17-year-old girl, pushed the young boy backwards causing him to fall over the railing, said Deputy Michael Rust.
Last updated: 28 September 2012
 | Sources: |
Paolinelli, Fran. "Lancaster High School Fight Still Under Investigation." The A.V. News. 27 September 2012. LASD. "Lancaster High School Fight Between Two students Results in Investigation, Arrests." 27 September 2012.