Queer teen brutally beaten and spat on by school bullies as classmates cheered and filmed
Chad Sanford said she has been bullied by classmates for being LGBT+ since last January. (YouTube/ WPLG Local 10)
When a 13-year-old was assaulted at school by bullies who called her a “gay faggot”, her classmates cheered and filmed the attack without trying to help.
Chad Sanford, a sixth grade student at Deerfield Beach Middle School in Florida, told NBC News that she was simply walking down the hallway when an older student began to follow her on Wednesday (26 May).
As a disturbing video shows, teenagers gathered around her in the hallway before the student picked her up and slammed her to the ground.
Sanford lay curled up on the ground while the group screamed and cheered, before the video cut off.
Chad, who told NBC that she is trans and uses she/her pronouns, said: “I was scared for my life… I just kept thinking, ‘Why should I be here? Why are you beating me up for being myself?’
“He put me through hell.”
Sanford said the bullies stood on her face, spit on her, called her a “gay faggot” and said they would “knock the gayness out of” her.
Eventually one student helped her, she said, and she was taken to the principal’s office to report the attack.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the incident occurred but did not say if it was being investigated as a hate crime.
Sanford’s aunt, Raquel Showers, said Chad had suffered headaches since the attack, but that the effect on her mental health had been even worse and she was now having thoughts of suicide.
The 13-year-old, who said she has been bullied for being LGBT+ since last January, told NBC Miami: “I feel like I can’t go to school without being hated… I don’t think I can live anymore without this being a problem in society.”
Broward County Public Schools said in a statement: “The school’s leadership is taking this incident seriously and is working with law enforcement in its investigation.
“Any students involved will face appropriate school disciplinary consequences in accordance with the codebook for student conduct.”
But Sanford said the school has not yet taken any action.
“They didn’t do anything,” she said. “I wish they, or anyone, did something.”
