Athens girl says anti-illegal immigration sign led to attack

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: 6 news

ATHENS, Texas -- An East Texas girl who made an anti-illegal immigration sign as part of a U.S. history class assignment said she was beaten by other students.


Her sign said: "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration."

The father of Melanie Bowers, 13, of Athens said he's keeping her out of classes until probably next week until the situation is resolved.

"She's upset, first and foremost, because she didn't feel like she had any reason to be attacked," J.R. Bowers told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "She loves going to school. We're having to keep her out because we're scared for her."

http://www.kristv.com/global/story.asp?s=8134769

Read more: http://www.kristv.com/global/story.asp?s=8134769

[depakid]

1. The superintendent's quote is priceless

"I think that probably what we ought to look at is, if it's a current issue, we probably don't need a protest poster made on that issue," Hayes said.

:crazy:

[struggle4progress]

83. School: Girl lied about assault over immigration poster

Video cameras caught girl scratching her own arms and face.
By Paul J. Weber
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, April 10, 2008 http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/10/0410falsereport.html

Conservatives ... :eyes:

[EFerrari]

89. Now we know why the supe sounded that way. They must have had

some doubts about her story.

[TooBigaTent]

2. Perhaps she'd be better off with that homeschooling cult in Eldorado.

[brokensymmetry]

3. I guess I think schools should be safe.

Not only physically, but safe for exploration of
ideas. Safe for learning.

And that means safe for the exercise of freedom
of speech.

[AlphaCentauri]

4. agree, also free of hate messages n/t

[Lance_Boyle]

5. "Stop illegal immigration" is no more a "hate message" than

"uphold the law."

Sadly, I am not surprised to see DU's open-border utopian dream society come out to celebrate the beating and blame the victim. :eyes:

[AlphaCentauri]

8. for kids living at a southern border state could be a hate message

we don't see that manifestations of freedom of expression at airports or the canadian border.

[Lance_Boyle]

11. no, it could not ever be a 'hate message'

It might be falsely construed as one by someone deliberately looking to be offended, though. The fact is, assumptions must be made to get anything out of that statement other than "uphold the law." After all, how do you know that the victim's preferred method for ending illegal immigration isn't opening the border and declaring amnesty for those already here? Instead, you make the assumption that she hates Mexicans. Because it fits in with the perpetually-offended faux-victim mentality of a concern troll.

I hope the girl recovers, and that the students who attacked her are caught and punished.

[knight_of_the_star]

15. Here's a possible reason why

Because you don't have floods of Canadians crossing the border illegally and being employed for well below the minimum wage sinking wages of Americans in similar professions like construction into the floor.

[slampoet]

actually you did have a flood of Canadians coming across the border in the 90's

Just read back issues of the Vancouver Sun or The Toronto Star. It wasn't covered in US media.

What do you think the fisheries issue was about? What do you think the "BC BUD" controversy of the late 90's was about?

[EFerrari]

29. 1 out of 5 people in that town is Hispanic.

And their unemployment rate is lower than the national average.

http://www.bestplaces.net/city/Athens-Texas.aspx

[AlphaCentauri]

34. Thanks for statistics

[proud2BlibKansan]

71. It is a hate message here where I live

I also don't see anything wrong with an open-border utopian dream society. Humans living together in harmony. Imagine that!

[knight_of_the_star]

7. You are ok with Sturmbateilung tactics to enforce your opinion on that?

Like having a 13 year old girl beaten by her classmates because you don't like her sign?

[AlphaCentauri]

9. No, I do not believe in violence,

and I don't like parents who use their children to promote hate.

[joeglow3]

12. How is that hate?

I have shared my family's story before and will do it again. Growing up, my father was a construction worker (drywall). He made a great blue collar living the middle 1970's through the middle 1980's. Then, illegal immigrants began to flood their profession (drywall is the number 2 job for illegal immigrants, behind farming). My father's wages DROPPED every year. My family was forced to eat cheap crap (generac mac & cheese, etc.) and my mother actually made our clothes. The only thing that saved them now is that he was a union worker. Sadly, those who entered after him don't have this luxury because the illegals have killed all unions around here (there is one small drywall outfit here that is still union when almost all were before).

So, I don't think it is a message of hate to say some of us don't like to see people flaunt our laws, enter our country illegally, and stick it to the working class union members. Frankly, it blows my frigging mind when I see some of the so-called progressives here supporting policies that fuck over the very class they claim to support. Illegal immigration is the exact same thing as shipping jobs overseas - it kills the working class. How can you say opposition to one is hate, but then oppose the other yourself?

[EFerrari]

17. Do you also remember what your government was doing

in Latin America in the 80s?

Starving people out of their homes and driving them north is not the same as outsourcing jobs, no.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. How is blaming the victim working for ya so far?

And I guess you forgot what Reagan did to destroy our unions. It must be easier in your world to blame the immigrants.

I feel sorry for you. You really need to educate yourself and find out WHY the immigrants are coming here and taking laborer's jobs. Here's a hint: they have nothing AGAINST the US workers.

[joeglow3]

21. I am not saying they do.

However, if I have a really good reason, do you mind if I invite myself into your house and take some things? How about if I have nothing against you, personally?

I think we should do what we can to help out poor across the world. However, I fail to see how the solution to this problem is eliminating the middle by driving all living wages down to nothing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. A better analogy

Your neighbor takes a bus down across the border and brings up a busload of immigrants and their families and then tells them they can come in your house and steal from you. Your local government knows he does this and ignores it.

You need to identify the correct bad guy in this situation. It's not the immigrants.

[joeglow3]

37. I blame the government and the companies the most

The point of my argument is that I fail to see how voicing my opposition to illegal immigration is hate speech.

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. This is hate speech:

don't like to see people flaunt our laws, enter our country illegally, and stick it to the working class union members

You are blaming the VICTIMS. I don't know how much more simply I can define this for you. :eyes:

[joeglow3]

46. They have a choice

Frankly, I don't blame the choice they make and would probably attempt to do the same thing. However, those ARE things they are doing. You may not find it objectionable, but it is the truth. I don't see how stating the flat out, undisputable truth, is hate speech.

[proud2BlibKansan]

51. Starvation or going north to work

Yep, some choice.

LOL

[joeglow3]

59. How about attempting to improve their country?

How about banding together and demanding a less corrupt government? (upon edit: I believe we as a country and as individuals are obligated to help out in this process. I don't want you to think I believe we should just say "piss off" and leave them to fend for themselves).

On a different note, there are people in similar situations all over the globe, but they cannot get to the US. Do you support sending jobs to these countries from the US? Even if they are literally starving to death, as well? If not, how do you say it okay for people from Latin America and not for people from, say, Vietnam?

[EFerrari]

63. The last election, Mexican workers "banded together"

and elected a progressive reformer. BushCo worked with the Mexican oligarchy to make sure that he wasn't seated. And that's a good example of how your government victimizes workers there AND here.

[proud2BlibKansan]

65. WE TOOK THEIR RESOURCES

Do you not understand NAFTA and what it has done to Central America?

[EFerrari]

67. And we help rig their elections to benefit US crony capitalists.

Don't forget that.

We ARE now Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia. We don't seem to like it when they do it to us but we're supposed to blame little brown people when it happens to them. :crazy:

[EFerrari]

55. That's like blaming poor black families for not staying together

when it's a matter of public policy to imprison poor young black men. Those families aren't together, that's a flat out indisputable truth. But, you're guilty of selective perception.

[Megahurtz]

92. The working class union members are the victims.

Duh! :think:

[EFerrari]

26. We could start by not making so many of them.

It's ironic that the right wing pushes that "breaking into your house" pos metaphor when the US has been ransacking Latin America for hundreds of years. Really.

[joeglow3]

38. All I am saying is that is a lot easier to have your position

when you and your family were not almost forced into living in the streets. There were a few times we were saved from losing out house by one lucky incident.

Again, I am not addressing what the US has done in Latin America. However, it appears you feel guilty and are willing to offer up the middle class as your sacrifice to make ammends.

[EFerrari]

42. You have no idea what me and my family were or were not forced

to do.

And you can't talk about what you call "illegal immigration" without talking about why those people are here.

I am of Latin American extraction. I don't feel guilty in the least for the predations of the US government. Believe me, I don't.

To say that undocumented workers are consuming the middle class is just ignorance. Blame Reagan. Blame someone with some power, not people who, like you and your family, are working people being victimized by the multinationals with the aid of your government.

[joeglow3]

47. I blame ALL of them n/t

[EFerrari]

50. And that makes as much sense as blaming air traffic controllers

for Reagan or people from Oklahoma for the Dustbowl or Iraqis for Bush.

[joeglow3]

56. We will have to agree to disagree

You believe people coming from Latin America can do just about anything they want without guilt. Based on my interpretation of your logic, if someone here illegally needed money and killed someone to get it, they would have no guilt. While I empathize with them, I cannot absolve them of all their actions - especially when the people they are now benefiting from are just as innocent.

[EFerrari]

61. That's exactly right. I don't think that poor farmers, for example,

kicked off of their land by the government we've forced on them, who come north to feed their now homeless hungry family has shit to feel guilty about. That's right.

[joeglow3]

68. So, you believe

someone who is wronged by the US has Carte Blanche to harm who the hell ever they want?

[EFerrari]

69. I believe in logical consequence. And that is what is happening now.

Your family was impacted in the 80s because Ronald Reagan went on a rampage in Central America. Same with immigrants, legal and illegal, from Viet Nam and from Haiti.

Check it out if you want to. Check the waves of immigration from those places against US policy there.

Who suffers? Working people there AND here.

And that you can be so callous as to actually claim that other working people are HARMING you by working is an astonishing act of denial. Those people were driven out of their homes by your government.

Maybe you should figure out how to "band together" with your fellow Americans and reform your serially offending government. People all over the world would be relieved.

[AlphaCentauri]

72. Lets just go deeper into the american state of mind

if people would admit that latin american countries have been ripoff and all those latin american peasants who have die for their people, die to maintain a middle class in america, what do you think would happened next?

in this context the guilty ones would always blame others, never will admit their sins, never will give up their gains.

So who is feeling more guilty and living in fear, the one who participated or gain something from the ripoff or the poor peasant who lost a family member, who defend their interest?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. So blame the employers who are heartless greedheads

and willing to destroy their local economies to save a few bucks AND are clever enough to convince their uninformed workers that their falling wages are the fault of immigration.

:shrug:

[joeglow3]

77. I them AND US

The companies do this to get a competitive advantage the we, as consumers, lap up. I can start a drywall company, allow it to unionize and pay all my employees a fair wage. However, how many people will actually pay $25,000 more for that house they are building (note: I am not interested in those who say they will, only those who actually will).

Thus, there is enough blame for everyone.

[treestar]

76. This is why they ought to unionize

across the borders.

You're allowing the divide and conquer strategy here. Guess who wins?

NonUS citizens are not going to vaporize. They have to have high wages too, or we have to accept lower. This is reality.

Reality isn't going to go away with the utopian dream of sealed U.S. borders with a sealed U.S. self-sufficient economy.

Try convincing the average American to pay a higher price for the same commodity. Why has all this happened in the first place? The American consumer insists on the lowest possible price, and if that means the Chinese make it, then so be it. Why does Wal-Mart drive out the local businesses with their lower prices? When do Americans ever stand up to that and say they're going to keep their locals in business by just paying the higher prices?

Same with the illegals. To them, it's a GOOD job. And to whoever is selling what they harvest or make, they win because they have the lower price.

It boils down to the American consumer.

[AlphaCentauri]

78. It's like drugs

everybody wants the drug lord in colombia but no body wants to stop using drugs.

[JeanGrey]

80. Very well put.

[Megahurtz]

91. I could not agree with you more.

But they don't care. You have to keep in mind some of the posters here are illegal themselves, that's why they support illegal immigration.

A pretty selfish cause of theirs, isn't it? :( Bulldoze the middle and lower class American Citizens for a free ride. Nice. :puke:

[knight_of_the_star]

14. Yet you are somehow not saying anything about the violence being wrong

Only blaming the victim for what happened, that's not far from approval.

[AlphaCentauri]

28. the students who attacked her should be punish

[knight_of_the_star]

31. But you still blame the victim

[AlphaCentauri]

32. How? saying that kids should debate not fight

[knight_of_the_star]

6. Because she exercised freedom of speech?

Freedom of Speech needs protection the MOST when it is threatened, what happened there was brownshirt-style suppression, nothing less than that.

[AlphaCentauri]

10. it should be protected and encourage the kids to a debate not to violence

I guess you are not assuming that right wing movements have been suppressed by brown shirts

[knight_of_the_star]

13. Can you prove she incited the violence?

Suppressing opinions you disagree with by violence is wrong, doesn't matter whose opinion is being suppressed.

[struggle4progress]

85. Yessireebob: UPDATE: Athens Student Caused Injuries to Herself

By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer

ATHENS — A 13-year-old girl who claimed she was attacked by a group inside Athens Middle School was caught on a surveillance camera causing the injuries to herself ... http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080409/NEWS01/731498537

[struggle4progress]

84. Athens School 'Attack' Proven To Be False, Girl To Be Charged

... Charges are being filed against 13 year old Melanie Bowers by Athens ISD through the Henderson County District Attorney's office for filing a false report, said AISD officials today.

Bowers claimed earlier this week that she was beaten and threatened - with killing and rape, no less - by a group of students at Athens ISD last Friday, for creating a protest sign saying, "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration."

After Melanie's accusations, administrators reviewed school survellience videotape of the incident - which, instead of showing students beating or attacking her, showed Bowers scratching herself on her arms, face, and neck, and walking through the halls of the school calmly long after she claimed the incident happened.

After Melanie's parents were presented with that information and the video, the school confronted Melanie, and she admitted that she made the story up ...

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8142322&nav=1TjD

[EFerrari]

16. I wonder if this story is even true.

What usually happens with these stories is a few days later, they turn out to be skewed beyond recognition, like when undocumented workers were blamed for the last big CA fire or later, accused of looting food.

[devilgrrl]

19. It's probably horse hockey - like the "Iraq vet" who keeps getting spit on and showing up on FAUX

I swear to christ, half the crap reported is total bullshit anymore.

[EFerrari]

24. I have never had an occasion to regret that I don't watch teevee news

any more or that I stopped the fish wrap deliveries. Not once.

[Seeking Serenity]

20. What if it does turn out to be true?

What will your opinion be?

Just curious.

I, myself, am appalled, but not altogether surprised anymore.

Violence seems to be everyone's reaction to something they don't like anymore.

[EFerrari]

22. I feel the same way. Now the people fanning this flame

have got the kids involved. How scary to be hurt like that at school. :(

[Seeking Serenity]

25. Whoa, whoa, whoa

Tell me you're not blaming the girl's parents for her getting attacked (assuming for now that the story is true).

Please tell me you didn't just do that.

[EFerrari]

27. Of course not. But, the adults involved on every side of this

and particularly on the right wing nutcase side, have been careless about how they speak their hate. It was only a matter of time before the kids' start paying for the adults' irresponsibility.

So, spare me your fake outrage. I've yet to hear an undocumented worker wish violence on the nutcases. I hear the nutcases, in their profound ignorance, wish all kinds of horrors on undocumented workers and on Latinos in general when they can manage to keep those categories straight.

[AlphaCentauri]

30. most of the time kids reflect what they learn from their parents

we do not have to be psychologist to know that.

[Seeking Serenity]

33. But if a child made a sign for a progressive cause,

say, in favor of gay marriage, and was attacked for it, would people here make a inference that the child's parents were indirectly responsible for her being attacked?

Of course not. The street should go both ways.

[AlphaCentauri]

35. some kids become gang members which not reflect the values of their parents

but in essence most of the time kids will project what they have learn in live, if they grownup in misery that will affect their behavior there are many other factors including TV.

[EFerrari]

36. Apples and oranges. No one would blame a gay couple

if their child is attacked because they are the more likely victims of culturally promulgated hatred.

The street doesn't go both way. In this country, gays, women, and people of color are most often discriminated against. They themselves don't usually discriminate against straights, men and white people. Sorry.

[Seeking Serenity]

41. Well, then that's where you and I disagree.

The street should go both ways. I don't cotton to double standards, irrespective of the righteousness of the cause. I won't praise, excuse, forgive or look the other way at behaviour practised by people on my "side" of an issue when I wouldn't for that of people on the "other" side.

To paraphrase a Eugene McCarthy campaign slogan: "My side, right or wrong: When right, to be kept right. When wrong, to be put right."

[EFerrari]

43. The idea that there is "reverse discrimination" is a right wing meme

used to divide working people.

[Seeking Serenity]

44. I don't believe in double standards, period.

It wasn't right when there was one standard for white people to vote, but a higher one for black people (poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, etc.)

It's not right for rich people to have access to elite higher education they do not merit (legacies, son or daughter of big-daddy donor) that poor people do not have.

I could go on.

And it's not right to give people on the progressive side of an argument a pass that would not be granted to someone on the other side.

Period.

[EFerrari]

45. No one is arguing that. But, consider this.

Wingnuts always behave as if their own hatred will have no consequences for them or theirs. Take the example of raids and deportation. Lots of wingnuts are all for that, you bet. Imagine their surprise when it turns out American citizens are always caught up in those operations. Imagine their surprise when one of their friends is.

It's the same with teaching children to dehumanize other people. Imagine their surprise when their child becomes a victim of the same thoughtlessness.

This kind of stuff always redounds. No one is saying it's right -- but there are always unintended consequences.

[Seeking Serenity]

48. There are always unintended consequences, unfortunately

That maxim also cuts across all ideological lines, sadly.

Our hatred has the same effects, don'cha think?

It would be better if we could get rid of all hatred. That's my garden theory.

[EFerrari]

49. But the left wing doesn't teach hatred as a matter of course.

There are a lot of people on DU that make a lot of noise about hating Republicans but most liberals don't run around teaching their kids to hate. The same can't be said for the right wing and that's one of main differences between us. We don't teach our kids to hate people who are unlike us, the right wing does.

[Seeking Serenity]

53. That's an awfully broad and unfair generalized characterization.

DH is "right wing" (certainly, I think, he would be considered such under your definition) and he doesn't teach our children to hate (perhaps you and I need to define "hate"). We have lots of friends who are conservative politically and their children are friends with my children, and I've never seen evidence of those children having been taught hate.

Do I disagree with them on political issues? You bet, quite often. But I don't see that hate that you have broad-brushed them with.

It is not hate to disagree politically. Otherwise, it would have to be said that I hate my husband (which I do not) and that he hates me.

[EFerrari]

60. Well, no it really isn't.

The right wing has fought hard against civil rights for people who aren't white straight men. That's not my opinion, it's historical fact.

It's not hatred to disagree on politics. It is hatred to want to continue to disenfranchise women, people of color, gays and on down the list.

And that's not my broad brush. Those are their policy positions. For example, there is no real debate as to whether gay people are entitled to have the same rights as all Americans. The wingnuts frame it as a debate to make their hatred respectable.

/oops

[Seeking Serenity]

66. All right. Well, I think we should just leave it, then.

No minds are going to be changed nor opinions swayed by continuing this further. Probably the better part of discretion that we drop it.

[EFerrari]

96. Discretion often serves to cloak denial.

No person of conscience can support the right wing with their repressive positions on social justice.

The contemporary Republican party is not just an equal and different party. They are the party that actively seeks to deny human rights to other Americans. That is what you gloss over when you say it's just a difference of opinion.

It's not just a difference of opinion. It's a difference of the valuation of the lives of Americans.

It is that simple.

[AlphaCentauri]

73. in either case you give the RW the pretext to terrorize people

not given some rights to other because you don't get yours it's kind of ego.
Immigration and gay marriage is like abortion and the war in Iraq, nothing in common.

[Megahurtz]

93. Bullshit. There IS TOO reverse discrimination!

Tell that to the last Mexican girl that called my daughter a "white bitch" simply because she entered a room of Hispanics.
They did not want her there because she was white. You think that's the only time something like this has ever happened?

Either you are ignorant or you're just "playing dumb."

[EFerrari]

95. I think you should feel right at home on my ignore list.

eta: Ignorance knows no racial or ethnic boundary. But, no, there is no systematic "reverse discrimination" in this country. To make such a claim is ludicrous. The opinion or behavior of one person is not evidence of "reverse discrimination". It's the behavior of one person, not a systemic problem. Geezus.

[slackmaster]

57. I'd say blaming one's own bad behavior on something someone else said is beyond pathetic

And criminal defendants should keep their damn fool mouths shut unless they are being advised by a competent attorney.

:hi:

[devilgrrl]

75. It's not true...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3261738

[lonestarnot]

81. Well it didn't what if!

[LanternWaste]

52. I'm thinking the same thing.

I'm thinking the same thing. The "assault" will turn out to be gum in her hair or some such nonsense.

[Seeking Serenity]

54. I hope its just that.

Doesn't make it any more right, of course.

[LanternWaste]

58. With all the Professional Victims the right wing has mobilized

With all the Professional Victims the right wing has mobilized over the years, I'd be more surprised if the story does turn out to be true than not.

They've gotten pretty good at staged victimization lately...

[EFerrari]

64. You bet! All those marriages gay people break up!

All that voter fraud black people commit!

All those unborn babies women kill just for the fun of it! :sarcasm:

[LanternWaste]

70. Exactly. I'm thinking of that one particular fellow who's daughter

Exactly. I'm thinking of that one particular fellow who's daughter had been "injured" at two different progressive rallies in the past year or so. Then there's the recent college republican whose own assault he used to such great aplomb in his college newspaper which turned out to be staged also.

(Both stories courtesy of DU...)

Five'll get you ten it was a mere schoolyard altercation which the "victim's" parents decided to wrap in a political statement...

[EFerrari]

62. Her assailant will turn out to be some white kid who had an unrelated

beef.

It would be nice if it turned out she wasn't hurt as badly as this item seems to imply.

[struggle4progress]

87. Ding ding ding!

[AlphaCentauri]

74. You've got it right

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRFvtpR4oxk

[Bombero1956]

79. she faked the attack

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/569774.html

[pegleg]

82. Personally I hope she sues the crap out of them. Her rights to free speech were violated.nt

-

[struggle4progress]

86. Bowers v. Bowers will be a great case! Plaintiff should hire a REALLY expensive lawyer

to rack up costs while the defendant appears pro se

[Selatius]

88. The girl lied about being beaten up. She did a disservice to everyone. nt

[EFerrari]

90. Violated by . . . . herself!

[pegleg]

94. Personally I hope someone---- the crap out of her