Black Teen Beaten By Whites

GIBSONTON - A 15-year-old student and his friend packed up their instruments after a concert at East Bay High School and prepared to leave.

Before the teen made it off campus, he was beaten outside the school's band room.

The student is black. His attackers were white.

As they hit him with fists, they hurled racial slurs at the teen, who raised his arms to protect his neck and face but couldn't avoid a cut and a deep bruise below his left eye. His friend, who is white, was untouched, the teen said in an interview Friday.

The attack about 8:30 p.m. Dec. 5 resulted in the arrest of one East Bay student, who was already on suspension for a previous infraction

For the injured teen's mother, the attack smacked of a hate crime.

Hillsborough County sheriff's officials confirmed Monday that the boy was beaten and witnesses reported his attacker used racial slurs. However, authorities are not treating the beating as a hate crime, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said, because it does not appear the teen was targeted specifically because of his race.

"I'm a little shaken up by it," the teen said. "I'm coming from a band concert. It's supposed to be a safe environment. We're at school, and I felt my life was threatened."

The teen returned to school a day after seeking medical treatment, but has not been back since. "He will not return to East Bay," his mother said.

She said she was concerned that only one of the people who attacked her son was arrested, but continued to work with officials to learn who else was involved in the beating.

The Tribune is not identifying the teen or his mother for their protection.

The 17-year-old accused of beating the boy was suspended from the school for a nonviolent offense before the Dec. 5 beating and was not supposed to be on campus, Hillsborough schools spokesman Steve Hegarty said.

That teen, of Wimauma, has been charged with trespassing on school grounds and battery, both misdemeanors, Carter said.

An Isolated Incident

Hegarty said the attack appeared to be an isolated dispute and not symptoms of racial problems at the school, which has more than 1,900 students.

Last school year, East Bay had a dozen instances of battery, roughly 6 percent of the battery complaints at the school district's 25 high schools.

There was little more the district could do to punish the student because he has been arrested and is facing expulsion, Hegarty said.

Fearing For His Safety

When the attack occurred, there were two sheriff's deputies providing security for a soccer and a basketball game, Hegarty said.

He said had the fight escalated, those deputies could have quickly responded. There was no security outside the band room where the attack occurred, he said.

The beaten teen said he feared for his safety because he was confronted by a group of four young white males, two of whom struck him and yelled racial slurs at him.

The teen said he was worried about one of the young men in the group who warned him not to fight back. He worried the man, who was wearing a long trench coat, might have a gun.

At least a dozen students witnessed the beating, the teen's mother said.

The teen did not fight back, he said, because he did not want to be suspended.

The teen said the altercation stemmed from an earlier dispute between his friend and the teen who beat him, all of whom are band members.

The teen's mother credited the school district with responding quickly to her needs and agreeing to transfer her son to another school. She said she wished there were more counseling options, or that there was a school district forum to address issues of race or discrimination.

"My son had no right to be beaten," she said. "He had no right to be called racial slurs."