Reading a few other stories and putting the snippets together, it looks like the police have a witness (implied that its a student) and that they are questioning other students — obviously tricky given their age.
But it looks like classic school bully-abuse, and taken beyond the limit. It’s the age, though, that is puzzling. The perps would be — what — 3rd graders? I’m having a hard time imagining that aspect.
It reads like there was some kind of assembly. There were probably bigger kids there too. The sad thing is, if this was a bully, he probably didn’t mean to hurt the kid. We see it as degrading but harmless on tv at times, esp the kid shows.
I went to public school im the Chicago area.
Kids start joining gangs in 1st grade.