On Monday, I told you that Isaiah Wooding, a teenager from Penn Hills, Pennsylvania who has cerebral palsy, was brutally attacked in the hallway of Penn Hills High School–an assault that was captured on video and plastered on social media. Well, there’s good news. Less than 24 hours after launching an investigation, Penn Hills police charged Isaiah’s attacker with simple assault.
Penn Hills police chief Howard Burton announced that the assailant will receive a summons to appear in juvenile court by Wednesday afternoon. Burton said that school officials “had no trouble identifying” the attacker when his detectives reviewed the video on Tuesday morning. The bottom-feeder’s name is not being released–for now, anyway–since he is 17 years old. Burton said the attack happened at around 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning in the cafeteria. It took place behind a pillar, which likely prevented any nearby adults from seeing it.
Police considered filing charges of aggravated assault, but decided against it since Isaiah came out of the attack relatively unscathed. Under Pennsylvania law, an assault is only considered aggravated if it results in serious injuries. However, that kick could have triggered a seizure–in which case, an upgraded charge would have been a slam dunk.
For now, anyway, no one else is facing criminal charges. However, Burton said that anyone seen laughing in the video could be disciplined by the school. That’s disappointing, to say the least. This attack was clearly premeditated; Burton said that the attacker and his cronies “were just waiting for this kid to come around.” I were Burton, I would have made every effort to bring anyone and everyone who was in on this outrageous stunt before a judge, and not just rely on the attacker spilling the beans. At the very least, the person who recorded this video should be arrested as an accessory. Indeed, if I’d been the father of the person who recorded that video, I’d have dragged him to the police station myself.
Isaiah’s attacker might not be the only one who has some explaining to do. School officials initially only told Isaiah’s mother, Margaret, that her son had hit his head. They sent him home with a note from the school nurse cautioning Margaret to watch for potential concussion symptoms. You mean to tell me that it didn’t occur to the nurse or anyone in the administrative wing of that school to ask Isaiah how this happened? If that wasn’t enough, Margaret told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that no one from the school called over the weekend to see if Isaiah was OK.
Margaret has complained to school officials on numerous occasions about how Isaiah has been taunted and bullied. She says that the kids there pretend to want to be friends, but they really want to “humiliate him and tease him and not engage in friendship with him.” Incredibly, according to Margaret, school officials have only told her that Isaiah needs to accept that other kids “don’t want to be bothered with him.” Cliff Notes version: if someone in that school had taken Isaiah’s complaints seriously, it’s a near-certainty that Friday’s assault would have never happened. Needless to say, Margaret wants her son’s attacker expelled from school, and also wants assurances that “this never happens to anyone’s kid again.”
From where I’m sitting, there are only two ways that Isaiah will get real justice. First, everyone who was involved in planning this stunt should be arrested, and promptly. Second, and more importantly, the administration at Penn Hills High must publicly apologize to Isaiah for failing to protect him–while they are writing their letters of resignation.
