ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. — Two middle school students have been charged with battery after a video of a student beating up another student went viral on social media.
The video shows a 14-year-old student punching another student in a bathroom at Discovery Middle School in Granger. The student recording the incident on his phone is heard cheering the assaulting student on.
“You are not immune if you are just standing on the sidelines filming,” said St. Joseph County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Tamashasky. You’re not immune when you encourage and you aid and give support to someone to go off and be a bully. You own the bullying too.”
Which is why Tamashasky said in a news conference that the student who recorded the fight is facing the same charges as the student seen in the video beating up the other student.
“Both are equally responsible,” he added. “The kid that filmed it owns every punch that student took to the face, even though he never threw one.”
Tamashasky’s boss, Ken Cotter, said the video was posted to social media. But, when the two students realized they could get in trouble they tried to take the video down and delete it. But he said by that time it was too late.
“They actually attempted to get that video and delete it right away,” Cotter said. “The problem is that in today’s world, with today’s technology, you can’t do that. It will go on forever and ever.”
Cotter urges parents to talk to their children about standing up for students who are getting picked on and that they can be just as responsible for an incident like this if they don’t do something to intervene, like telling an adult rather than recording it on their phone.
(PHOTO: briannajackson/Thinkstock)
