Blastoderm55
09-07-2006, 03:09 PM
We should all remember this story that was originally posted here earlier in the year.
By The Associated Press
September 6, 2006
HOUSTON- A teenager who nearly died after he was beaten and assaulted with a pipe has returned to school five months after the attack, his mother said.
The 17-year-old has recovered enough to take classes at Klein Collins High School, his mother said. While the boy relies on a cane to walk, his recovery has been faster than relatives expected, his mother said.
"He was supposed to use a walker, but he thinks it makes him look old," she said.
The Hispanic teen was savagely beaten at an April 22 party in the Houston suburb of Spring by two new acquaintances. He was punched, kicked, burned with cigarettes, doused with bleach and sodomized with the plastic pipe of a patio umbrella before being left for hours in the backyard of a classmate's home. At least one of the two assailants yelled ethnic insults during the beating, authorities have said.
Spring residents David Henry Tuck, 18, and Keith Robert Turner, 17, have each been indicted on a charge of aggravated sexual assault for their alleged part in the attack. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The teen, who has not been publicly identified because he is a sexual assault victim, spent three months and eight days in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital. He returned home in late July, his mother said.
Doctors have operated on the teen's internal organs and more surgeries are expected, his mother said. The teen was kicked in the head by steel-toed boots during the attack, but he does not appear to have suffered brain damage, she said.
The teen's mother said she's unsure whether her son, who is in his senior year, will be able to graduate this spring if he misses more school for surgeries.
Friends of the victim often walk with him at school, she said.
"His friends are protecting him," she said. "They watch him like a hawk."
The attack fueled controversy about hate crime laws because of the alleged use of racial slurs during the beating.
Some state lawmakers and local leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens have said they will work to change the state's hate crime law so additional years can be added to the sentences of those convicted of hate crimes.
By The Associated Press
September 6, 2006
HOUSTON- A teenager who nearly died after he was beaten and assaulted with a pipe has returned to school five months after the attack, his mother said.
The 17-year-old has recovered enough to take classes at Klein Collins High School, his mother said. While the boy relies on a cane to walk, his recovery has been faster than relatives expected, his mother said.
"He was supposed to use a walker, but he thinks it makes him look old," she said.
The Hispanic teen was savagely beaten at an April 22 party in the Houston suburb of Spring by two new acquaintances. He was punched, kicked, burned with cigarettes, doused with bleach and sodomized with the plastic pipe of a patio umbrella before being left for hours in the backyard of a classmate's home. At least one of the two assailants yelled ethnic insults during the beating, authorities have said.
Spring residents David Henry Tuck, 18, and Keith Robert Turner, 17, have each been indicted on a charge of aggravated sexual assault for their alleged part in the attack. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The teen, who has not been publicly identified because he is a sexual assault victim, spent three months and eight days in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital. He returned home in late July, his mother said.
Doctors have operated on the teen's internal organs and more surgeries are expected, his mother said. The teen was kicked in the head by steel-toed boots during the attack, but he does not appear to have suffered brain damage, she said.
The teen's mother said she's unsure whether her son, who is in his senior year, will be able to graduate this spring if he misses more school for surgeries.
Friends of the victim often walk with him at school, she said.
"His friends are protecting him," she said. "They watch him like a hawk."
The attack fueled controversy about hate crime laws because of the alleged use of racial slurs during the beating.
Some state lawmakers and local leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens have said they will work to change the state's hate crime law so additional years can be added to the sentences of those convicted of hate crimes.