Goshen teen beating posted online

July 17, 2008 06:59 am

— GOSHEN, Ind. (AP) — A woman whose 15-year-old daughter was beaten by several other teenagers didn’t report the incident to authorities until she saw the incident posted on YouTube, police said.
Goshen adjutant police spokesman Joe Brown said the victim’s mother believed the June 3 incident was just a typical “kid fight” until she saw the video on the Internet. She reported the beating to police Monday, Brown said.
The girl apparently was beaten on the last day of school, authorities said. The video, which has since been removed from the Web site, shows several people appearing to kick and push the girl repeatedly as she lies on the ground. At least 10 teens appear in the video, Goshen Community Schools Superintendent Bruce Stahly said Wednesday.
“I was, one, disappointed in our students and shocked,” Stahly said. “If we had known about the fight prior to the posting, we would have investigated it.” School officials also learned of the video Monday.
Stahly said those involved face school disciplinary measures once they are identified.
He said the video appears to have been inspired by a similar scheme in which a group of teenage girls in central Florida posted the videotaped beating of a 16-year-old victim online.
In April, a group of middle-school girls in Clarksville videotaped an assault on a 12-year-old girl and posted it on the Web site PhotoBucket.
Nancy Willard, executive director for the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, said such postings are becoming too common.
“There’s definitely an online social-norm aspect to this,” she said. She added that the prevalence of the postings seems related to the attention teens receive. Willard believes schools should play a significant role in trying to control such behavior.