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 Teen Gay-Bashing Victim |
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By Jack Nichols
Novato, California--17-year old Adam Colton got what appeared to be hearty support yesterday from his student body after being mysteriously beaten. The youth, his face cut, had stumbled into a classroom at San Marin High School and had passed out. He has no memory of the crime, the second attack he's sustained since September. On his arm and stomach his attacker/s had engraved the word "fag."
Colton's attackers have still not been identified. Nothing is known about where the youth was beaten, though it is assumed that he was attacked on campus where his car was found parked. Police also lack any information about the number of his attackers.
The school rally was called by both students and teachers, unhappy that their specific facility is fast acquiring an unsavory reputation as a breeding ground for bigotry. Colton's gay bashers, unfortunately for San Marin High, have brought attention to other campus problems, highlighting a racial harassment suit that's based on a steady stream of ugly reported incidents that were compiled during 1998.
The student/teacher rally, which lasted less than an hour, featured approximately a dozen student speakers, some of whom wished to show their support for their embattled Principal Rudy Tassano. Gay-bashing victim Colton had previously indicated, according to reports, that he felt Tassano had failed to act effectively to curb school-based violence after Colton had first been assaulted by a gang outside a local grocery store.
Tassano, given a special off-campus assignment for the school district, has been temporarily relieved of his duties as San Marin's principal. The racial suit alleges that the presence on the San Marin campus of swastikas and confederate flags, as well as repetitive racial slurs have been too long tolerated by the school's administration. Local police say they are investigating the gay bashing as a hate crime. Rewards totaling $7 thousand dollars have been offered for information that leads to the bashers. |
