A student on a Belleville West High School bus was beaten for his choice of seat, not because he was white, according to a witness and police.
"The incident appears now to be more about a couple of bullies on a bus dictating where people sit," said Belleville Police Capt. Don Sax, who originally said Monday's attack may have been racially motivated.
D'Vante Lott, 16, said he was on the bus and witnessed the attack by the two black students.
The victim walked onto the bus, looking for an open seat, but students kept turning him down, as D'Vante said happened often with this student.
But Monday, the victim apparently tired of asking for a seat, D'Vante said, moved one student's book-bag off a seat, and just sat down.
The student next to him then started hitting the victim for moving his bag, D'Vante said.
But the second assailant was just trying to act tough, D'Vante said. "The second guy hit him because he wanted to hit him," he said.
D'Vante didn't think the attacks were racially motivated.
"Nobody even knows the kid," D'Vante said. "He's a quiet dude."
"They usually let him sit down," he continued.
Meanwhile, D'Vante said, the bus driver did little. "He kept driving. All he said was 'Sit Down.'"
Later, D'Vante said, the victim tried to take a picture of his face with a phone, but he couldn't get a good picture, so he asked someone else to do it for him.
The school suspended the two attackers for 10 days today, pending an expulsion hearing, and suspended three bystanders, including D'Vante, for five days for laughing at the incident, D'Vante and his mother said the principal told them.
D'Vante's mother, Shenico Greer, was very upset outside Belleville West this afternoon, as she picked up her son.
"He was not in the fight!" Greer said.
"Everybody on that bus, mostly, was laughing and standing up," she said.
She said her son even helped the victim after the attacks, picking up his glasses and asking him if he was OK.
Greer also didn't think the attack was racially motivated.
"There are other white children who sit with black children," she said.
Meanwhile, school and police officials met Tuesday afternoon. Police spokesman Sax said he did not know what came of the meeting.
Police had not this afternoon presented charges for prosecution to the state's attorney's office, Sax said.
Still, several white parents and students said Tuesday afternoon that they felt the incident had to have been racially motivated, and that the school has been struggling with racial tension.STLToday
Here's the video.
It's been debated by many people if this incident is race related.
Thoughts?
Log in to comment