Thread: False Report Charge For Girl In Athens School Attack

I am adding this latest report from KLTV 7 to the homepage, removing the older articles from the homepage we put up earlier today, pulling the youtube news video, and notifying our supporters of this new news.

W

Good William glad to see that.

Originally Posted by cayla99

I am not into the forensic sciences, but I am a mother. In the video, those scratches on her face look consistent with scratches made from falling hard on the pavement. I don't know how she could have scratched herself in that pattern. They reported earlier that the incident took place in a "blind" corner and the cameras did not catch it. The principal would not let her call home when it happened. This just doesn't seem to add up for me.

I have to agree. There was a sizable scratched and bruised area on the lower left side of her neck. I honestly do not see how she could have done that to herself with her hands. Alot of the injured areas did look like scratches from brick or pavement. I have a feeling this is one of these cases where we are never going to know exactly what happened.

April 9, 2008, 7:00PM
School says girl lied about assault over immigration poster


By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press

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DALLAS — School officials said Wednesday that an Athens eighth-grader lied when she claimed a mob of angry students assaulted her for making a poster that read, "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration."

Surveillance cameras at Athens Middle School show Melanie Bowers, 13, purposefully making scratch marks on her face and arms in a hallway after a classmate took her poster in a "snatch-and-grab" style, Athens school Superintendent Fred Hayes said.

Bowers had told administrators she was clawed and hit after about 20 students, livid over the poster message she chose for a class project, swarmed around her and wrested the sign away.

What Hayes had earlier said was a scuffle partly borne from a heated national debate over immigration now appeared to be mostly horseplay, he said.

"The real error in this whole thing lies in the young lady telling lies," Hayes said.

Hayes said the school is pursuing misdemeanor criminal charges against the girl for making a false report.

The girl's parents apologized for their daughter in a written statement provided by school officials. They did not immediately return requests for comment.

The alleged scuffle led to the suspension of three Hispanic students. Hayes said on Tuesday that witnesses reported seeing the three make physical contact with their white classmate.

The students returned to class Wednesday, but Hayes said their punishment remained appropriate because they still were involved in taking the poster. Hayes said one snatched the sign and the others encouraged the plot, although Bowers was never hurt.

Hayes said he apologized to the parents of the suspended students.

"Those students were cast in a negative light," he said.

J.R. Bowers, the girl's father, wrote in the statement provided by school officials that he agreed that charges will need to be filed against his daughter.

"I see that my daughter was not assaulted and put the marks on her body," Shera Bowers, the girl's mother, wrote.

News of the alleged attack over an anti-immigration poster — and the suspension of the three Hispanic students — touched off a flurry of comments on the Internet and to the Athens school district.

Hayes had said that the district received messages from people well outside Athens, a city of 12,000 about 70 miles south of Dallas. He had said that "some of these people are irrational in some of the e-mails that they've been sending me about these young people."

On Tuesday, Hayes said he was not surprised by the alleged scuffle because of the passions stirred by the immigration debate. He also critized the class project as being inappropriate for middle school students.

Hayes said the school district would consider placing Bowers in an alternative school.

J.R. Bowers, who had agreed that the class project was too advanced for eighth-graders, had said Tuesday that he was holding his daughter out of class for the rest of the week.


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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5688341.html

Fox News confirmed this morning that the girl lied, showed the video of her scratching her face walking down the hall. This is disgusting that she would do that. I will say that the boys are still in trouble because they took her sign and ripped it up. What we have here are boys trying to intimidate her free speech and destroying her class project. These boys are not innocent either, but she contrived to make this bigger than it was. I'm glad to see the parents holding her responsible for her actions. Now let's see if the school and the parents of the boys hold them accountable for theirs.

Originally Posted by Gogo

Fox News confirmed this morning that the girl lied, showed the video of her scratching her face walking down the hall. This is disgusting that she would do that. I will say that the boys are still in trouble because they took her sign and ripped it up. What we have here are boys trying to intimidate her free speech and destroying her class project. These boys are not innocent either, but she contrived to make this bigger than it was. I'm glad to see the parents holding her responsible for her actions. Now let's see if the school and the parents of the boys hold them accountable for theirs.

I hope you are not holding your breath!

WEll I'm not but it would go a long way to heal that situation and to start bringing an end to this. When legal Latinos step up to the plate, unlike the Sharpton's and Jackson's, it would go a loooooooooooong way to getting this stopped.

Gogo, we aren't twins anymore lol

Originally Posted by cayla99

Gogo, we aren't twins anymore lol

I felt like doing something a little lighter for Spring. Yep, there's William leading the group. Little blue gum drop. LOL

(MOD EDIT)