US student given 90 days in juvenile detention for attacking gay classmate
A 15-year-old student has been sentenced to a month and half in a juvenile detention centre after he was videotaped attacking a gay classmate, the Columbus Dispatch reports.
Levi Sever was filmed beating a gay student, also 15, in a classroom at Unioto High School, Ohio.
He pleaded guilty to assault in a Juvenile Court and was ordered to undergo counselling.
The student’s mother says in an interview with local station WSYX-WTTE, the footage shows the boy trying to get away from his attacker twice before Sever “beats the holy living crap out of him”.
The victim said that he had been bullied in the past, and Sever had commented on a picture of him on Facebook: “Check out the definition of a faggot.”
The attack was captured on a mobile phone and later posted to Facebook.
The video, which was not shown to school officials during their initial investigation, shows the attacker hit his classmate at least seven times in quick succession.
Campaigners are pushing Ohio’s state legislature on new provisions for its anti-bullying laws. Ohio House Bill 208 would add sexual orientation and gender identity specifically to the current protections against bullying and harassment. It is pending in the House Education Committee.
