Thursday, February 10, 2011

Bully Boyz Update

Spent the day writing a column about the Upper Darby 7, the accused teenage bullies that had Police Superintendent Mike Chitwood in such a lather and the rest of the civilized world outraged and weeping for 13-year-old Nadin Khoury.

As of an hour ago, all charges have been dropped against one of juveniles, five took plea deals that will get them sent home or placed in some sort of juvenile program and one has decided to go to trial. I'd love to talk to his lawyer.

As I predicted in my column the ludicrous kidnapping charges were dropped against them all.

Wednesday night, on our new little Live from the Newsroom video show, Chitwood lamely defended the kidnapping charge but was otherwise eminently reasonable about the case. What was revealed on the video didn't match the descriptions being thrown around in the media. Brutal, vicious, violent. It was ugly and humiliating but not wildly violent. Nadin didn't have more than a couple of scratches on him.

The family does have a lawyer now. Given the publicity, it would be hard to for the kid to return to school, though none of what happened occurred on school property.

On the day of the incident, Nadin was serving a suspension for, we have be told, telling one of his teachers to "go F--- himself." Nadin may be a crime victim but he is no shrinking violent.

The district will have to decide the most appropriate setting for Nadin to now get his education. His family's new lawyer ought to be able to help in that regard.

In the meantime, Nadin's learned that being a victim can get you a lot of positive attention and presents from cruises to meeting your favorite pro football players.

As for the young perps, here's hoping they've learned a couple of lessons too. Don't video yourself ganging up and assaulting people. There's no future in it.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

That boy could have been killed by them hanging him on the fence post. Those posts are sharp. What kills me is the district knew there was a problem and did nothing. I wish the district would REALLY follow their Zero Tolerance policy. They use it when they want to, meaning it's not really a Zero Tolerance policy at all. This kid may not be an angel but for the 6 other kids to be allowed to go home is a seriously bad idea. They belong in Juvie.

February 10, 2011 at 7:18 PM 

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