A 14-year-old boy was hospitalized last month after being savagely beaten by a group of older black teens on a school bus in Hamilton County, Florida, and now shocking video of the brutal attack has been released online. The boy’s mother said on Twitter that her son Tyler was attacked because he wore a Trump 2020 hat to school. She is calling the vicious interracial assault a hate crime.
The family released the video online after their attorney Foye B. Walker gave them the okay. It’s tough to watch.
https://twitter.com/FoyeWalkerPA/status/1205212681604599808?s=20
“I guess that’s what happens when a kid wears a #Trump hat to school,” said the boy’s mother on November 21 from Tyler’s bedside at the hospital. The mom, who tweets under the handle @AmericanDiaries, added: “And who’s the violent ones again? Earlier today they poured milk all over his head.”
The mother believes the attackers could have killed her son. “Plain and simple this was a hate crime and attempted murder according to the state of Florida since it was over three kids that jumped him and these kids are older and larger. Thankfully my son got into the fetal position and held his hands over his head he’s got defensive wounds,” she said.
The assault left Tyler with head injuries according to a medical document his mother posted on Twitter. He was released from the hospital later that evening.
“He’s gonna be okay physically but he is not doing well mentally,” his mother tweeted. “All he wants to do is sleep but I’m scared to let him sleep with his head injuries. I will be up with him tonight I’m worried about the big bumps on his head.”
On November 23, she tweeted that “the bus tape was reviewed and there is now a criminal investigation underway. I will continue to keep you all informed. Tyler is in a lot of pain today, very emotional and very upset. He wants to thank all of you for all the well wishes, as do I.”
The mother explained on Twitter that her son bought a Trump 2020 hat with his own money and proudly worn it to school weeks before the incident, but after being immediately bullied, he put it away and didn’t wear it again. “Sadly the damage was already done and [he] was now a target,” she explained.
From that point on he was steadily getting messed with. He was getting hit, tripped & verbally abused on the bus, but it all came to a head yesterday on his bus ride home. The nurse noted there are bruises on his arm that were older along with his new injuries. He didn’t tell us about the bullying, but they took it to a new level yesterday and we are just now learning what he was going through. My husband is going to the sheriffs department now and I really hope these kids are held accountable.
To those suggesting she should have her son transferred to another school, the mom explained that she couldn’t because there are no private schools, only one elementary school and only one high school in all 519 square miles of Hamilton County. And home-schooling is not an option, she said, because her son has ADHD and it’s too difficult to teach him at home.
https://twitter.com/AmericanDiaries/status/1198805790745870343?s=20
On Dec. 6 the mother tweeted that the five kids involved in the assault had been suspended until December 9 “at which time they will be having a discipline hearing.”
She said that same day that the police were not considering the assault to be a hate crime because “everyone that jumped on him were related.”
“Yeah, I don’t get it either, she added. “So if 5 white kids, all related, jumped a black child, no one would be screaming #HateCrime??? Double standards.”