I vote for complicit. How do you NOT notice that going on? I mean, what? Is that playground like a couple acres in size that it couldn't be seen or heard at all. Beatings like that aren't quiet, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that poor little kid must have been screaming. If he brings a gun to school and shoots the kid that beat him, we'll all see that on the news, but not this beating. Heck no.
Yep, there's got to be a direct link between the faculty and this beating. I doubt very much that those other kids got their instructions from their "two daddies" (or whatever) - this was something that originated in that school.
I'm thinking it was something along the lines of: "See that kid over there? Everyone will have to go to school seven days a week because of his father."
It had to be something that those kids felt personally... I just have a tough time believing that Mom (or Dad)'s bedroom proclivities mattered so much - to that many of his classmates - all at the same time.
Someone was whispering in those kids' ears. I hope someone finds out who it was.
If the playground is too big for the teachers to monitor, they need to restrict the area where the kids can play or abolish recess.