Students accused in Facebook 'ginger' attacks could get counseling, along with their parents [Updated]

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is reviewing whether to charge three Calabasas youths arrested in connection with recent attacks on redheaded students at a middle school.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's investigators Monday morning formally presented the allegations to a juvenile prosecutor, said Shiara Davila-Morales, a district attorney spokeswoman.

The decision whether to file criminal complaints comes after detectives booked two 12-year-old boys on charges of battery on school property and a 13-year-old boy on charges of cyber-bullying -- sending a threat via an electronic communication. 

They were all taken into custody in connection with the attacks apparently spurred by a Facebook site and inspired by an episode of the animated "South Park" television show, "Ginger Kids." [Updated at 9:44 a.m.: A previous version of this post said the episode was titled "Kick-a-Ginger Day."]

Davila-Morales said no decision on whether to file criminal complaints will be made before today.

Steve Whitmore, a Sheriff's Department spokesman, said some of those accused of being involved in the assaults at A.E. Wright Middle School could be put in a diversion program rather than face a formal criminal complaint.

The students could be placed in the District Attorney's Juvenile Offender Intervention Network, which deals with nonviolent, first-time juvenile offenders in an out-of-court setting. Under the program, the juveniles and their parents agree to the terms of a contract acknowledging responsibility for their acts, and they agree to pay restitution, have good school attendance and perform community service.

Parents also agree to attend parenting classes, and all families are referred to group counseling, with the case being monitored for a year.

School officials have identified nine children believed to be responsible for the assaults. Eleven victims have come forward.

All the injuries were minor, officials said.

Samara Kleinfinger, 12, told The Times last week that she and other red-haired students were summoned to the principal's office on Nov. 20. There already had been at least one attack, and administrators, alerted by students to the possibility of more, wanted to warn Samara and others to be careful. Samara said she was punched and kicked by six students on her way to the office.

School officials have given some of the students involved five-day suspensions -- the maximum allowed under state education rules -- and they had already written letters of apology to the victims.

-- Richard Winton

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Comments

[Shannon]

OK, so they don't want to kick them out of school because the parents are clearly irresponsible anyway. I get that. They should have to stand up in front of the student body and the parents and read their letters of apology. Then they should be denied the opportunity to socialize at school through detention at lunch and nutrition for the remainder of the year. Additionally the parents should be required to make financial restitution to the victims, and publicly apologize for the laizzez faire attitude toward parenting that created a child who thinks its acceptable, under any circumstances, to bully anyone in any form. Add to that, a year of mandatory weekly counseling for the child and weekly mandatory parenting classes for the parents and perhaps we will see a decrease in school violence and stupid parents.

[Just walkin the dog here]

So weak. Why not just give the little perps a "harmony bear" and give them counseling for feeling bad (about getting caught)?

[dr]

lol@Bonnie! HATE CRIME? Red heads are a protected class? Oh come on.

All crimes like this involve hate.

[ND]

I'd like to dovetail Dave's comments. When I was in what was then jr. high school, we had a PE teacher/Dean of Discipline, Mr. Williams, a no-nonsense former pro football player who had played for both Vince Lombardi, and Paul Brown. Mr. Williams had a favorite saying - "Gentlemen, if we can't communicate, we will eliminate" - and Mr. Williams was a man who spoke softly and carried a big stick (the dreaded paddle), and that paddle was his means of communication. And if he couldn't communicate with you through use of the paddle, then, it was simply time to eliminate you, and off you went to face suspension, or expulsion to continuation school. What made matters worse for those of who were unlucky enough to fall into that group, was that Mr. Williams was from our community and knew many of our parents and grandparents, so when we messed up they received a personal report from him regarding our behavior, and we were then subjected to another belt or extension cord administered " 'whuppin" .

So there is definitely something wrong with this picture when these youngsters can behave in this fashion, and this is the extent of their punishment. Mild admonishments don't go nearly far enough to redress their wrongs. All that's going to happen is that at the end of the day, these "hard headed" (a term often used by my deceased grandparents) youngsters are going to just grin and chuckle as they brag to friends at how easy they got off for committing these crimes, and walk around with their chests stuck out, while their victims, already fearing being ostracized and stigmatized, will be left thinking that it will do no good to alert school administrators , staff, and faculty to these types of incidents, because nothing will happen to the perpetrators. What's worse, is that it sends that same message to the well behaved and decent kids, the ones who didn't and wouldn't engage in that type of behavior, as well.

[Jonathan]

Hmmm....my comment noting that there was a falsehood in the article is deleted, even as the falsehood is corrected and noted? And the article still blames a 4-year-old television episode without noting that the episode had nothing to do with "kicking a Ginger" and the point of the episode was the exact opposite of the act carried out by these kids.

This is like blaming Schindler's List for anti-Semetic attacks.

[jk]

This country has lost its mind. Since Ronald Regean and the family values Rebublicans came into office, you need 2 parents working to support a family. Who's watching the kids? Nobody! We have reached the zenith of what the "Family Values" party wants, work houses for childeren, no unions,a peremant under-class to serve the ultra wealth, a worthless public school system,and whats left of the middle class batteling each other.Now everyone is a proctected class, redheads, blondes,Lawyers, blacks, latinos, and asians. Its time for a workers revolution

[Jeff]

There was no "Kick a Ginger Day" episode of South Park. These kids did what they did because they're immature and not because of what they saw on television. That episode was done almost 4 years ago and had nothing to do with kicking gingers. Don't blame this on television shows, blame it on the kids or the parents for poor parenting.

[Dave]

Jail no. They just learn to be worse or better criminals.
Jails a school for criminals. Must stop the gangs period. And we are not willing to do what is needed. We give a time out for punishment. Gangs give a beating and or death. Jails promote gangs.

Clean the toilets and school for a year and pubicly apologise weekly in front of the whole school, acknoledging they cleaned the toilets and what that incurred.

The parents should have a similar punishment for non parenting of values and morals. And both should have weekly conseling because beating someone up on a whim is not acceptable.

[Chris]

This is worse than cyber bullying, this is more of an organized crime (a group of children) intending to seek out and harm other children. And you really think a "Time-Out" is the proper way to raise younger children? As long as we neglect to hold parents accountable, these cyber based problems will continue.

Parents afford the means for these children. It is the parents who purchase the computer, it is the parents that pay the electric bill to power up the computer, it is the parents that pay the internet bill to connect, it is the parents that put these computers into the rooms of our children (behind doors), etc...

Little Billy is probably downloading illegal music, watching porn and posting messages on all the social networking sites about his next conquest (or victim).

Parents are soley responsible for brining technology to their children - Fact is, most of these kids (under 16) do not work - how else could they get it?

Consider owning a firearm in your house. Do you leave the gun sitting on the kitchen table? Do you leave the bullets laying around the house? If Little Billy gets hold of this gun and hurts someone who do you blame? The owner. Why? Becuase they afforded the items and did not bring them into the house properly.

Same way parents afford the computer (gun) and pay the bills (bullets) to allow their children to better coordinate attacks on other individuals

[Joey]

Where are the parents in all of this? I think you should take advantage of the channel block. one of the many new features of going digital. I think people are more sensitive now than 10 years ago. Parents are afraid to give kids an ass whoopin when they deserve it. Its all about "time out" and "we'll talk about it tomorrow"...No, its time to talk now. The time for "time out" is gone. We're living in an age where kids are being exposed to more adult content every day. Not just at home, but in their everyday lives. When they go to school or when they hang out with friends. You may be blind and ignorant, but these kids already have a big vocabulary...And i'm not talking about the good words. Just stop with all the P.C stuff and just be Correct. Just speak the truth to kids and put some fear back into parenting. Kids should be afraid of what might happen to them if they do something bad.

The media doesn't do any good either...Back when they were making a big deal about terrorists, they actually said they would use gum ball machines and pens for their next plot against america...GIMME A BREAK!

[hibousoir]

People, STOP blaming "South Park"!

#1) The show may be animated, but it is NOT (and never HAS been) made for children! It is an ADULT show that is run late at night on cable. This show premiered at the Spike & Mike Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation for crying out loud! It has ALWAYS been intended for ADULTS. Guess who are the adults in this situation? THE PARENTS.

#2) The episode in question, "Ginger Kids," does NOT promote violence against Gingers! Yes, one of the characters, Cartman, does discriminate against ginger kids, but the other characters act against him to show him what a little bastard he's being. Anyone who has watched the entire episode (anyone with a BRAIN that is) can tell you that this is one of MANY "South Park" episodes that uses the intolerant, sociopathic, discriminatory behavior of Cartman to illustrate WHY those behaviors are so wrong.

For god's sake, do everyone a friggin' favor and be INFORMED before you start getting hysterical and blaming the arts for the bad behaviors of children--and their PARENTS!

[erasure25]

So, exactly where is the huge public and media outrage when a gay kid is bullied? I assure you that somewhere in the USA, some gay kid is harassed, teased, and bullied every day... sometimes they are beaten and even killed. What about Blacks? or Latino/as, Asian kids?

That South Park episode was all about showing the stupidity of all forms of discrimination. But somehow, sarcasm is lost on some people.

Nonetheless, the next time a gay kid is bullied, if it doesn't make the front page news for several days, I'm going to point to this story as a sign of how biased the media can be and how discrimination is obviously more important when it involves heterosexual white kids as victims.

[Sarah]

Do you really want your kids to go to school with these bullies, in fear of getting beaten up every day? Bullying and getting beaten up at school is NOT normal. It never happened at my junior high school and that's because the kids actually respected each other.

EXPEL THEM! Charge them with a crime. If they were adults, they would be charged with assault and battery, to the fullest extent of the law.

[Mike Anderton]

Also a great article on the subject from the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/08/gingers-prejudice-redheads-bigotry

[Amy]

Holy crap! Everyone on here is placing blame...Do I think parents need to moniter what their kids watch, yes, do I think they need to bring back spankings in school, yes and at home. However...did anyone stop to think that the parents have no idea how their kids behave at school or with friends until they get into trouble? Why automatically place them in counsiling? My mother never knew half the crap I did until years later. And as far as some people saying the creators of South Park should monitor what they write, the show is on late at night so the kids are sneaking watching it. It is not South Parks fault. Everyone needs to stop placing blame elsewhere and it needs to go directly to these kids...they need to go home and spanked with a belt until they can't sit down so they can understand what a hate-crime is and what is wrong because they are old enough to know better.

[Bob]

South Park rules,, dumb kids completely missed the message though. They should be banned from watching TV.

[Mlyn]

The first time I read this article I laughed thinking that the children were being placed in a non-violent first time offenders program and the parents would have to attend classes. After thinking about it, I think this is a good idea, but they all (parent & child) need to do their community service by speaking to other students and parents and making them aware of what went wrong with them/their child.

When I was a child I would have never done something like this because the wrath of my parents was not worth it, and I raised my children the same way. They were taught to defend themselves and the underdog, otherwise stay out of it and they are pretty good people---not into gangs, drugs, but sports, school, and friends instead. Something is wrong with these families/young people that would allow them to treat someone else this way and think it was OK or not fear the repercussions.

BTW-South Park is not to blame for this one.

[Mr. G...]

Thats pure BS!!!
My son was suspened from school for
" HORSEPLAYING " because the school said that it was borderline too "VIOLENT", whatever that means. And your telling me that these kids that actually assaulted someone are receiving counseling.
This decision is NO different from that of our current legal system which is based (SOLELY) on income levels...

[runcatalina]

Disagree that this has to do with income; rather it has to do with how big of a pain the parents will be and what lawyer they might hire. However, often times the two are related.

[Omar]

I think these little punks ought to be given a harsher punishment. I think it's BS that they are getting a slap on the hand for beating up inocent kids, just because they saw stuff on TV. Are they going to claim that the media has influenced them? Shoot, the media presents us with several POSITIVE examples to follow, why is it that they don't take them? Where are the parents of the bullies? Whatever happened to a good ass-whooping...like Chris Rock says "...ain't nobody above an ass whooping!"

[json]

Seriously, bullying and learning to deal with bullying is a staple of growing up. It happens everywhere, in schools all over the world, and everyone goes through it. All the people in here saying this is a hate crime and blah blah blah... seriously, just let these kids grow up. Children these days are pampered to the point of disfunction. Twenty years from now, society is going to be inundated by mal-adjusted, depressed, stressed, anti-social, pedo, pyscho, you name it, crazies... all because parents nowadays are treating their kids like talking pets.

[mamabear]

Our ginger daughter was also attacked due to this. She is now learning how to gouge a persons eyes out, among many other permanently disabling, and fatal self-defense techniques. She is finally gaining some confidence through her new found "how to kill, maim, or permanently disable" studies, and she is devoting herself to it 110%. It's keeping her from sinking into the "no justice served" abyss, and I'm keeping thorough documentation every day on events that happen at school with specific kids.

Of course, I'm very worried about revenge fantasies, as they're more than justified. I wonder why all these bad kids' parents never think of the consequences of not teaching their children to not harm others. The Hatfields and McCoys used to be required Middle School reading. But, the kids still didn't get it if the parents didn't enforce it. And that's because they're incapable at their age of understanding that retaliation does happen, more often than not. Every person on this planet demands justice for themselves, and if they don't get it one way, they'll get it another. It's a no-brainer to most of us.

[observer]

HUMANS ARE MESSED UP AND THIS IS CASE IN POINT !!!