- April 19, 2024
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Updated 11:50 a.m. May 13:
A middle school boy burned a younger boy's hair with a lighter on the school bus while other kids filmed to post the video to the multimedia messaging service SnapChat, according to a Sheriff's Office report.
He was suspended, but later hit the boy he'd burned, saying "snitches get stitches."
Both boys are students at Buddy Taylor Middle School, and the incident started the morning of Monday, May 9.
The older boy, a 14-year-old, held up a cigarette lighter behind the 13-year-old boy's head on the bus to school, later telling a deputy "that he never intended to burn the back of (the younger boy's) hair but wanted to see what his reaction would be as several students on the bus were filming the incident to post on 'SnapChat,'" according to the deputy's report.
The lighter singed a spot about an inch-and-a-half wide on the back of the younger boy's head.
The younger boy told the school's principal what happened, and the older boy got a referral and a 10-day suspension.
But the two boys rode home on the bus together later that day, and after both boys got off at the stop at Selma Trail and Secretary Trail, the older boy said to the younger, "snitches get stiches," then hit him the left side of the face, according to the report.
The impact knocked the lenses out of the younger boy's glasses, and left a red mark and swelling that the deputy noted in his report.
The younger boy was able to fix his glasses, and he and his mother initially told the deputy that they did not want to pursue criminal charges. The mother later decided to pursue charges, according to a Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.
While a deputy was speaking to the younger boy and his mother at their home, the older boy and his mother arrived at the house to apologize.
The older boy gave the deputy "nearly exactly the same account of the events," the deputy wrote in the report, and said that he'd been "upset that (the younger boy) 'snitched' on him for the incident which took place on the bus ride to school this morning."
The older boy's mother's boyfriend showed the deputy footage the older boy had accidentally texted to him, showing the older boy walk up to the younger boy and hit him, knocking him to the ground.
The two boys "shook hands on scene" at the house, and the older boy apologized to the younger boy, according to the report.
The younger boy's mother told the deputy that if anything similar happened in the future, she would press charges against the older boy.
