East Texas

By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer

ATHENS - Review of statements and video surveillance vindicated students accused of assaulting a 13-year-old student at Athens Middle School, said Athens Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Fred Hayes. The female student will be charged by Athens District Police for making a false report, he said.

"It's disappointing that we have an issue like this going on," he said. "It's certainly disappointing when a student lies, anytime."

The incident began as part of a history class assignment on Friday. She and the other students were asked to create "protest signs" dealing with current and past topics. "If you love your nation, stop illegal immigration," her sign read. She claimed a group of 21 students, many of them Hispanic, assaulted her by pushing her into a brick wall and scraping her face down the wall, and that males in the group attempted to drag her into the bathroom while telling her they would rape and kill her.

Hayes said, while he is disappointed that she will be charged for filing a false report, he is relieved that an assault like the one she described did not occur on campus. He said questions about the validity of her claim were raised earlier in the investigation because of conflicting stories, but that video from inside the school provided the most important evidence in the case.

The availability of video was crucial to uncovering the truth about the incident, allowing them to follow the student's movement during the time she claimed the incident occurred, Hayes said. District Chief Paul Redic, who investigated the alleged attack, said the camera system in the school had recently been upgraded.

In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Hayes addressed the findings of the school's internal investigation into an alleged Friday morning assault in the hallway of the school.

He said the female student can be seen in the hallway walking down the hallway with a sign from her history class in her hands as if she was displaying it. Hayes said a male student approached her from behind and took the sign away from her and ran, ducking into the gymnasium and away from her. Moments later, she walked by several teachers and never indicated to them that she was under duress, the video showed.

Hayes said she then approached Assistant Principal Mark Castleberry and told him someone had taken her assignment away from her. He told her to go to class and that the matter would be investigated later, Hayes said. Videotape then shows the female student scratching her arm and neck area, wounds she would later claim were inflicted by a group of attackers.

Hayes said administrators are reviewing the Texas Education Code to determine disciplinary actions that will be taken against the female student. The charges will be handled by the Henderson County district attorney's office. He said that, after seeing the videotape, both of the teen's parents apologized to him on the phone and in a written statement to the school.

Three students served one day in-school suspensions for their role in taking her project from her and destroying it, a disciplinary action Hayes said is basic for such behavior.

Hayes spoke to the families of the accused students, whom he said were concerned about the situation and assured them the school was determined to discover the truth of the incident and that the students were innocent of the claims.

Four other students corroborated the accuser's story, Hayes said. He has not yet determined punishment for those students, but said the district is looking into it.

In the future, the district will steer away from projects that contain sensitive material, Hayes said.

Hayes said many people outside the Athens area have e-mailed him about the incident, politicizing a school project that led to nothing more than a minor incident between a few students. He counted nine e-mails he had received concerning the alleged attack while he spoke with the Tyler Paper after the news conference.

"It's an important historical lesson to be taught political protest, but to have 13- and 14-year-old students produce that project is not an appropriate way to teach protest," he said. "There are other ways we can teach that."

HAYES
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