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The NY Post's version of the story:

Students at the city's high school for gay kids ganged up to clobber a man after he taunted them, cops said. The free-for-all on Astor Place left the man injured and under arrest, along with three students from Harvey Milk HS.

Witnesses said around 20 students jumped the man after he hit one kid in the head and threatened others with a screwdriver outside Starbucks Wednesday afternoon.

The man who allegedly provoked the fight - Vernon Jones, 23, of Brooklyn - was treated at a hospital for a puncture wound and was charged with menacing.

Three students, Erica Simon, 17, Kareem Macedon, 16, and Penn Lorenzo, 16, were charged with gang assault and menacing, cops said.

Pupils at the school said the bad blood began after Jones confronted Macedon in a nearby McDonald's Tuesday where he threatened: "I am straight and gay people are going to die."

"The guy came and said, 'You're all going to hell' and told us that we should have all died before we were born. It was really upsetting," said student Randy M., 19.

Students said Jones then returned Wednesday and confronted Simon, who is bisexual, outside the Starbucks where she was hanging out after school.

"The same kid came back yesterday and he brought a screwdriver with him and he said to the girl, 'Where are your people?' She said 'What people?' and he punched her in the face," said Stephanie Ruiz, 16, from Woodhaven.

Ruiz said many kids from the school then jumped on Jones, and Lorenzo stabbed him with the screwdriver.

"We were heading for the train and the straight guy went wacko," said a student. "All the kids from the school jumped the guy because he hit the girl."

Simon's family at her home in Coney Island said they had spoken to the teen from jail. She told them Jones had smacked her head against the Starbucks glass window.

"He turned and banged her head twice against the window pane and she fought back," said her brother Jeffrey Simon, 22.

Cops, however, said the brawl was caused when Jones began making comments to the students while sitting in his car outside the Starbucks, waiting for his wife to buy coffee. They said Jones also had an infant in the car.

Cops said Jones told the kids the way they were behaving "reflected poorly" on other black kids, but didn't specify if this was a gay slur.

They said the students began throwing bottles at the car and Jones got out wielding a screwdriver.