A teen was beaten for carrying the pride flag at school. His classmates support the bully.

[Behind the Aegis]

A 17-year-old student continues to recover following a brutal beating by a classmate. The reason for the attack: The bully saw his victim carrying the pride flag.

The incident happened at Southwestern High School in the southern community of Piasa, Illinois. School administrators had promoted a “red, white, and blue,” day encouraging students to bring their favorite flags to school. The Jacksonville Journal-Courier reports that when a classmate noticed the student’s pride flag, he asked him to throw it away. When the student refused, his classmate attacked him, punching him in the head.

At the time of this writing, the extent of the victim’s injuries remains unclear.

Police later detained the assailant and charged him with excessive battery. He remains at a juvenile detention center and could face hate crime charges in the future.

---snip---

"You wear a gay Pride flag to school and you don’t expect people to do anything? You go to Southern (sic) High, where we support the Confederate flag and you wonder why you get beat up?” one student posted to social media.

more....

Doesn't that last paragraph in the excerpt say it all. In the "Land of Lincoln", some see it as Confederate Flag country.

[ret5hd]

1. "... charged him with excessive battery..."

He went too far! If he had stayed at regular battery, everything would be OK I guess.

WTF.

[mn9driver]

2. Piasa Southwest HS isn't much of a school.

-It ranks 13,394 of 17,857 nationally.
-Math proficiency is 28 percent, reading proficiency is 33 percent.
-It has 471 students and is 94 percent white.

This school has very little success at anything except creating Trump voters.

[greenjar_01]

8. I mean, you'd have to attract faculty and admins who want to live in Piasa IL

That's a high fucking bar.

[Downtown Hound]

3. Illinois native here

Fortunately from the Chicago area. Illinois is a blue state because of Chicago and a few other areas. But go to the rural areas, and it's Alabama of the north. This story does not surprise me in the least. It's why the whole red state, blue state thing is a false dichotomy. In reality, the country is purple, with certain areas having a few more of one color than the other.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Right. It's cities that are blue, not states

Blue states are the ones with big enough metro areas that they outweigh the acres of red.

Cities plus college towns, I should probably have said.

[AwakeAtLast]

10. Southern Illinois native here.

Everything you say is true! I don't want to live in or near Chicago, but I pay a high price being around these RWNJs!

[WCIL]

11. West Central IL here

Can confirm. Forgottonia leans HEAVILY Red, with all the ugliness that entails. It's getting scary here.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

4. This other kid sounds like a major dick ... obviously!

However, the author is a little frustrating ...

"following a brutal beating by a classmate"

"the extent of the victim’s injuries remains unclear."

I wish writers wouldn't do this. You basically give the reader a license to go 'pffffttt' when you sensationalize at the top and then admit later you don't actually know that your earlier description is true.

Without actual details, I'd stick to the 'excessive battery' charge from the police ... that sounds pretty bad too.

Just saying

[rickyhall]

6. When I was in high school that's the kind of fight I got into. I always helped underdogs like me.

[Solly Mack]

7. My fellow high schoolers supported gang rape

and I have no doubt they would have cheered the beaten of the student in the OP.

It's a generational sickness, passed on - hate and ignorance.

[hunter]

9. And small town U.S.A. wonders why all the interesting kids leave and never look back.

"Brain drain" is a real thing.

So is brain damage caused by hate radio, anti-intellectual religions, teenage binge drinking, meth, and insecticides.