Posted on 02/14/2003 6:27:59 PM PST by Dubya
FORT WORTH - Dressed in tan fatigues and white undershirts, 20 seventh-graders from William James Middle School solemnly filed into a juvenile courtroom Friday as their confused and weeping parents passed around a box of tissue.
The eight girls and 12 boys had been held overnight in juvenile detention after a Fort Worth police officer assigned to the school said she saw the group "jump" a 13-year-old girl in the schoolyard Thursday in what appeared to be a gang initiation.
The students, their parents and the youngster described as the victim maintain that the group was just "playing around." Many parents were furious about the detention, saying no one contacted them and that for hours they did not know where their children were, until word got around their neighborhoods that they had been taken into juvenile custody.
Assistant Superintendent Sue Guthrie said that William James officials attempted to notify every parent, most of whom do not speak English, and that the district is investigating to find out why some parents were not reached.
She said the students are suspended from school until they are notified to return or to report for disciplinary hearings.
After an hourlong hearing Friday morning, visiting state District Judge L. Clifford Davis released the students pending further investigation. All are accused of delinquent conduct/assault with bodily injury and engaging in organized crime.
The girl described as the victim was also released to her parents.
Assisted by a translator, the judge ordered the students, ranging from 12 to 14 years old, not to associate with each other or the alleged victim, to abide by a curfew and to attend school if they are not suspended.
"I'm going to release you, but you need to understand, this matter is not dropped. It is not over with," Davis said. "Your behavior controls whether or not you stay out. Does everybody understand that?"
After hearing simultaneous, "Yes, sirs," the judge excused the students, allowing them to change clothes and leave with their parents.
Lt. Mark Krey, a police spokesman, said the incident began about noon Thursday when officer K.A. Thompson, a 17-year police veteran previously assigned to the narcotics and gang units, was approached by a school employee.
The employee told Thompson that she wanted help finding a special needs child who had left his trash on a cafeteria table and needed to clean it up, Krey said. While looking for the student, Thompson and the school employee saw a circle of students attacking a female student in the school yard, Krey said.
"They are physically striking her with their hands and feet," Krey said. "Thompson, based on her experience, immediately recognizes this as a gang initiation and steps in and intervenes."
According to the police report, several of the students stopped "punching, hitting and kicking" the girl and ran away as the officer approached. Others, including the girl, appeared surprised and shocked to see the officer and school employee, the report states.
"The young lady that was being assaulted told the police that they were just playing around. She received visible injuries, scratches, redness and minor bruising as a result of this `playing around,' " Krey said.
The Police Department's gang unit was contacted and the group was taken to the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Center.
After the judge released the students Friday, their parents lingered around the facility waiting for their children and seething about what had happened.
Many said they became worried when their children were not waiting for them after their classes or extra-curricular activities.
"When I went to the school at 3:15, she wasn't there," said Tody Rosalez, mother of a 12-year-old girl. "I was looking all over for my daughter. I didn't know where she was."
About 9 or 10 p.m., she said, rumors circulated through the neighborhoods that many of the children had been taken to the juvenile justice facility. Parents arrived there en masse, she said, but were told their children were not going home that night.
Alma Valenciano, sister of the 13-year-old who reportedly was being attacked, said she and her mother rushed to the detention facility after hearing that her sister had been beaten.
When they arrived, she said, the sister told them that she and a group of friends had just been playing around.
"My mother checked her," Valenciano said. "She has not one bruise. She's not into gangs. It's all a lie."
Several of the students, who acknowledged that there are gang members at the school, said they were playing a "pinching game" in which they try to leave red marks on one another. Some said Valenciano's sister had been chasing the boys, pinching them, and the boys retaliated by pinching her.
A 13-year-old boy who was among those detained said the experience was frightening. After he was handcuffed and taken to the juvenile facility, he was searched, made to shower in a group and housed alone in single cell. "I don't know where they got that we were kicking her and that we were in a gang and trying to jump her into a gang," he said. "We didn't do nothing bad. We were just playing."
Yeah!
Oh yes, the immigration problem simply MUST be addressed ASAP.
I think he meant "We were just lying". I remember when we got gangs in my hometown and the members denied it vehemently. It was just a "social club". The parents swore the kids were telling the truth. That is until they attacked a guy walking on a street and knocked one of his eyes out with a baseball bat as part of an initiation ritual.
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