Mob laughs as they viciously stomp 12-year-old kid who wore a rainbow flag to a picnic

[Behind the Aegis]

The family of a non-binary 12-year-old is speaking out after the child was beaten up for wearing a rainbow flag to a picnic.

Several students at Seminole Middle School in Largo, Florida have already been suspended after student Leo Hoffman was beaten last Friday for wearing a rainbow flag at a school event.

“I hate to see someone’s kid expelled from school,” their father Benjamin Hoffman told Bay News 9. “But you can’t lay your hands on another person. It’s just not acceptable.”

According to the father, Leo attended a picnic at their middle school during an outdoor lunch period, a reward just before a four-day weekend.

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[no_hypocrisy]

1. Jesus! What is this, Lord of the Flies?

Girls and boys. Children. Savages.

[Demovictory9]

4. my thought also

[Baitball Blogger]

23. Florida.

[HUAJIAO]

28. They learn this from someone- parents,

other kids who
learned it from THEIR parents,......

[electric_blue68]

2. Can we get juvie jailtime or something? Fucking little monsters!

[secondwind]

3. WHERE ARE THE GROWNUPS???!!?

[cinematicdiversions]

6. I think you mean teachers

This was at a school that was having a picnic.

[LanternWaste]

15. The one does not deny the other

As teachers and grownups are synonymous in this context.

[secondwind]

24. Yes, I knew. Thanks

[Treefrog]

43. I wondered the same.

Little monsters.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Good grief, so much blind hatred!

I still have a very old shirt with rainbow colors on it, from the early 80's when I was a teenager.

After several years of it being hidden behind other shirts in my closet, I wore it one day to my local grocery store. I was surprised that it still fit me well.

I didn't even THINK about the rainbow flag that represents the gay community!

As I was in check-out, the clerk said that it was terrible what happened to "my people" in Orlando a couple nights earlier. I asked what she meant? She said, "Your shirt. It means that you're gay, right?"

I replied that I wasn't gay, but I agreed with her that what happened in Orlando was terrible.

[The Jungle 1]

13. That is a funny story and sounds like something I would do.

In fact recently I told the story of fairies riding corgis through the country side at night to a man at an arts festival. (Google it) I was walking my corgi. He was standing outside his art studio.
It was not until later in the day that my stupid mind said, yo you probably F'ed up there.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

39. I don't pay much attention to group symbols...

... and I'll probably flash some kind of new "hate symbol" without even knowing eventually! Like the one that looks like the "okay" symbol with the fingers, or whatever.

The clerk later assumed that I wore the shirt to honor the deceased at the Orlando nightclub, so I just let her think it without correcting her. The truth is that it was random, after being surprised to see that old shirt from many years ago still in my closet.

I find it very strange to see people get worked up by symbols, or what they represent, in most cases. Unless they're groups imposing themselves on others, like Nazis, I don't really care what they do.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. I suspect these types of hostilities were always there

but were rarely as overt as they are today.

[arlyellowdog]

8. Seems like some kids were defending the victim

[eShirl]

10. yes

I was rooting for the girls, who still showed restraint in not using their superior leg strength to deliver a well-placed kick.

[Solly Mack]

9. I'd want expulsion and not suspension for all of the attackers.

Send them all to an alternative school. The victim should not have to see the attackers in school.

Also, I'd want assault and battery charges against them all as well.

Yes, I'm very angry. Bullies shouldn't be tolerated. Giving them an easy pass only encourages their behavior.

I don't want a child going to juvie where they can be physically or sexually assaulted but I don't want them to get an easy out either.

Suspension only, even expulsion only, is an easy out.

There must be more consequences for their behavior.

[eShirl]

11. this

[pazzyanne]

26. We need more consequences are levied for every thing unlawful - NO EXCEPTION!

We as a society have moved away from leveling the playing field where ALL people, irregardless of who they are, are treated equally under the law. Look at our US Congress, where crimes that are committed are ignored. Protocols have been ignored for years. The former president is nothing more than a crime boss and, to date, has had no consequences for his illegal activities for decades. Also. our parents need to be actively parenting their children, as that is where respect for others begins.

[area51]

31. +1 n/t

[Demsrule86]

32. My son when in elementary was beaten up on the bus by older middle schoolers who rode

the same bus...sent to the hospital. One bus stopover from mine a kid was kicked in the head by a known bully and died. In my son's case, the school 'lost the tape' and tried to say my son caused it which I knew was a lie...he would never because he was scared of those kids. I went to the prosecutor and filed charges. The kids were prosecuted and found guilty. There were three of them. They were kicked off of all sports, kicked off the bus ( I had to drive my kid while these little shits still riding the bus), and we had a restraining order against them...never to approach anyone in our family. They also had a curfew. It was tough, but I fought for my kid.

I remember one of the boy's fathers opined that my kid was a 'sissy'...the guy was a professional wrestler...lots of steroids and few brains. However, it made me a pariah of sorts for a while since this guy was sort of a celebrity. I offered to let my 6'5'' husband beat the crap out of his kid to ensure he "became a man", but he slammed the door in my face...go figure. This happened in Georgia. Southern schools are violent. I was shocked when I got there. We kept them in private school until my husband became seriously ill, and we couldn't afford it. But by the time my some was a sophomore in High School ( he was going to a wonderful night school program by then). I got to enjoy the sight of those boys who tortured him when he was younger cross the street to avoid this now very large kid...karma can be a bitch, but sometimes it can be wonderful.

[Solly Mack]

41. How horrible! I'm sorry that happened to your son. Happens to the entire family, really.

I'd like to see the children from the article on probation until age 18 - complete with weekly visits to a probation officer, restraining orders, mandatory counseling, and lots of community service hours a year. Home investigation, parenting classes, and all fees and fines to the parents for any violations.

The behavior in that video is completely and utterly unacceptable.

[malaise]

12. They are plain evil

Lock them the fuck up!

[kacekwl]

14. After 12 years driving a school bus

After this last year (school ended yesterday for me) I am not going back when school starts in fall. I could cite many stories but the fact of the matter is these kids are nasty, horrible criminals in the making. I place most of the blame on parents and family.

[Klondike Kat]

16. The parents of those little monsters should have consequences, too

Children have to be taught to hate, and it seems that their parents did a really good job of that.

[Ziggysmom]

17. Remember they were raised to be this way by evil parents. Kids are a product of their

environment.

Seeing these disgusting kids made me think of the old move The Bad Seed from the 1950s. That movie gives me the creeps more than traditional horror films!

[panader0]

18. Who hates rainbows?

[OldBaldy1701E]

19. Considering

That these same administrators would have called the police over a child pointing his finger and saying 'bang' at another student, that school had better have been crawling with police and superintendents. Otherwise, no one can deny the bias on display here. And, since people are so intent on charging parents over their kids stealing their guns, then they can be charged over this. (Those children did not learn this from the internet, despite what some might want to think.) Otherwise, our judicial system is a joke, and proves its bias every single time a person other than a pasty white, middle-class child does anything that they can turn into a criminal charge and/or a reason to scramble the SWAT team. This is inexcusable and there had better be severe consequences. Otherwise, why obey any school rules? Why obey any laws for that matter? They only seem to apply to those the establishment does not like...

[The Jungle 1]

20. When my kids were young my son complained about how "everything is gay" culture.

He said everything at school is "gay". That is gay,this is gay, you are gay.
So that is a culture thing and I called the school principal to discuss it. She was a black lady. Her reaction was that the boys just do that it means nothing. At that point I quit and just made sure my child understood reality.
I have always regretted not forcing the needed culture change. Fact is around 10% of those kids were already gay and should not have had to put up with that stupidity. Stupidity that was planted in their minds forever.

That principal also did not support having the children watch Obama's speech to school kids. Which was a big deal in his first year.
We are a southeastern Pa 95% white middle class suburban community. I did push that issue and told the school board if the kids were not allowed to watch that speech then I never wanted another politician in the school. Not even the school board. Apparently they got a lot of complaints because the children did see the speech.

[The Jungle 1]

21. Oh one more thing

We have the blue line flag
We have the red line flag.
Which I believe are both a desecration of our flag and the flag code agrees.

How about a rainbow line flag?????

[Crowman2009]

22. These bullies are examples of why all abortion should be legal.

How much do you wanna bet their parents are pro-life?

[RVN VET71]

25. I could not tell from the video because things moved so fast but

weren't there students trying to fight back? Or at least fend off the kid’s attackers?

Meanwhile, I agree, those kids directly involved and identified need to be removed from that school. If the kid was hurt, they need to go to court to face the consequences of their stupidity and hatred. Shoot, they need to go to court, period. The kid may not have been physically hurt (I hope he wasn’t) but psychological wounds can hurt worse than a black eye.

Florida strikes again!

[yobrault1]

27. Where are they learning this behaviour?...

Although it was heartening to see kids defending that child and the flag, but the mob, where did these kids learn to hate so deeply?

So depressing.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

29. They should be arrested for assault, and tried in juvenile court.

Suspending bullies from school is like giving them a vacation as a reward for bullying.

[XanaDUer2]

30. Nice. 11 yr olds yelling wtf nt

[marble falls]

33. One thing that no one noted: there were kids in there defending Leo and trying to get ...

... the flag back to him.

There's a lot of bad in that video, but there were kids who stood up for their classmate, too.

[Sympthsical]

35. I hope those parents get a call, too

Children who stick up for justice should be recognized early, IMO.

[marble falls]

36. Absolutely.

[Sympthsical]

34. This behavior was always present

But with camera phones, now we get to see it.

This kind of bullying existed when I was in school. I was never the target, but I saw it happen.

I'm almost impressed by the scale of this one, though.

Expulsion is the only punishment that will allow consequences to sink in. For the children and their parents.

As an addendum, I still think children wandering around with phones is weird. My niece is almost 12, and she has one. My father of all people was the one who got it for her. "If there's an emergency . . ." Sure. But this video is what kids actually do with them. Still glad someone caught the incident though.

[marble falls]

37. The angle of the video bothers me: it was from above the kids, as if shot by an adult ...

... if that's true, why wasn't the fight broken up instead of being documented?

[Sympthsical]

38. You're right about the angle

However, having watched various fight videos on the internet, it doesn't scream adult to me offhand. In many fight videos, where multiple people are filming, you'll see them along the edges of the fight, holding their cameras in the air and pointed downward, so they can film over the people in front of them.

Fairly common.

But your question shouldn't be dismissed out of hand.

[jeffreyi]

40. Kids can be mean little s**ts.

Especially when ganging up on another kid or an animal. We are not very nice primates.

[Progressive Jones]

42. Shitty people raise shitty children. nt