CA. School disciplines both students until cell phone video reveals true bully

A bullying incident at a local high school caught on video has captured national attention.

On Wednesday, Jan. 8, Etiwanda High School freshman Kobe Nelson and a classmate had a violent confrontation between classes. School officials intervened and suspended both students. Upon his return home, Kobe, 14, protested his innocence:

“‘Look Dad, I didn’t do anything wrong: These kids were harassing me,'”

And video shot by a classmate with a cell phone surfaced, which corroborated Kobe’s version of events.

This wasn’t the first time Kobe and the other boy had clashed. “In seventh grade, I saw this kid pick up an orange traffic cone and hit my son in the (crotch) with it,” he said.

Lucky for Kobe, a student videoed the incident showing Kobe repeatedly attempting to walk away from the fight as he’s pushed and finally pounced upon. The school instead of doing right, did what was easy. When Kobe reported the incident to the office, not only was he suspended, he was verbally abused by the school police officer. and suspended both students.

Kobe’s father saw the video and went to see the school’s principal the video. The principal shakes her head ‘no’ and raises her hand in the air, and says ‘I don’t need to see that; I know what happened.'” So Kobe’s father reached out to a friend of his, who runs the photojournalism blog Photography Is Not a Crime. Tuesday after the incident at Etiwanda High, the blog posted the video and a story, and things started happening in a hurry.

“Once that story broke, the principal and the district got hit with phone calls and emails,” Kobe’s father said. “I get a call at 8:05 in the morning on Tuesday from the deputy superintendent.” It wasn’t until the video was posted and received national attention that the school backed down and rescinded Kobe’s suspension.

The whole fight was caught on video by another bystander hoping to see some action. A crowd gathered inside the school’s outdoor property is baying for blood, calling Kobe a “bitch” for not fighting, and pretty much doing everything possible to get him to lose his temper. The other kid pushes Kobe, grabs him by his backpack and flings him to the ground. But throughout the whole event, Kobe remains calm. He not only refuses to fight, he tries to walk away in a dignified fashion. He doesn’t raise his voice, and generally behaves like a champ.

Since the video came out and started doing the rounds on social media, the school went back on their initial punishment, but Kobe hasn’t returned to school. As long as the school administrators ignore what goes on in the halls, and the security officer blames the victims, school isn’t a safe place to be a student.

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