Red Headed Boy Attacked: Police Probe Tie To 'Kick A Ginger Day' Message

CALABASAS, Calif. — Authorities say a 12-year-old boy assaulted by a group of middle school classmates in Southern California may have been targeted after an Internet posting urged students to beat up redheads.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Richard Erickson says the boy, who is redheaded, was kicked and hit in two incidents Friday at A.E. Wright Middle School in Calabasas. As many as 14 students participated in the attacks.

Erickson says the attackers may have been motivated by a Facebook message announcing that Friday was "Kick a Ginger Day." The posting may have been inspired by an episode of the television show "South Park."

The boy was not seriously hurt. Erickson says there may be other victims.

No arrests have been made.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com

Comments

[BowlingForRevenge]

10:40 AM on 11/24/2009

Calabasas???? Really
Richie Rich middle school kids beating up a child because of his hair color????
Probably do the same thing to kids who don't have Burberry school bags or LV lunchboxes!

[gaholiday]

04:33 PM on 11/23/2009

It could be worse though

Imagine if Glenn Beck decided to co- opt Kick A Ginger Day.....

[sweetchuckd]

04:22 PM on 11/23/2009

This story made http://detentionslip.org ! Check it out for all the crazy headlines from our schools.

[lincutious]

01:51 PM on 11/23/2009

I say we institute a "Kick the bullies day" to provide a bit of balance. Keep tally of bullying incidents and the antagonists involved, tell them that they will get their punishment on "Kick the bully day".
Make "kick the bully day" a school assembly type deal where the bullies are lined up and they are made to feel embarrassed and shameful for their actions. Then they are given the chance to pledge to the rest of the students that they will not bully any more, after which there is a celebration of some sort in order to facilitate the return to normalcy.

[groosemoose]

01:39 PM on 11/23/2009

South Park was playing upon the United Kingdom mentality. There's quite a bit of discrimination against gingers there. I don't think it's fair to blame SP for creating this.

Having said that, I don't get why some people are chuckling at this. If they attacked the kid for having dark skin, no one would laugh. This kid has red hair. It's just as wrong.

[SonofLiberty1]

01:32 PM on 11/23/2009

How about a....

"Find a bully in action and report him day"

[SteelTrapMind]

01:16 PM on 11/23/2009

Don't blame South Park, blame parents who clearly were less than successful at teaching their spawn that bullying is wrong, that discrimination based on external appearance is wrong, and that TV is not literal instructions for life.

Parents who fail at parenting are to blame for the vast majority of the 'you kids get off my lawn!' horrified reactions we have now in society, just as parents who fail at parenting have been to blame for every scandalous behavior of youth throughout history. Casting blame on South Park, Twitter, or a popular book is just a poor excuse for a parent casting blame away from theirself at the biggest media target one can see.

[research]

01:08 PM on 11/23/2009

You could blame "south Park" and try to censor media.

I blame the violent, hate filled rhetoric of the Conservatives leaders, treasonously riling up the dupes to violence.

The kids are just practicing what they see from our nations leaders.

[RightWingMarine]

03:30 PM on 11/23/2009

yeah I know when I was a middle school kid I cared what the talking heads had to say. Nothing impressed the chicks more than national politics.

[research]

05:11 PM on 11/23/2009

Children absorb the culture unconsciously.

[Dirtyspeed]

12:35 PM on 11/23/2009

So is "ginger" just red hair or red hair with freckles?

[Crix]

01:45 PM on 11/23/2009

Bright red hair and very light skin.

Dark red hair, which is half brown, half red, are called "day walkers."

[John Charlton]

11:33 PM on 11/23/2009

man this article just keeps giving hahahahaha +1

[gaholiday]

12:11 PM on 11/23/2009

Man this is just horrible....... well ...unless the target was Carrot Top.....

[BlackJAC]

01:11 PM on 11/23/2009

Have you seen Carrot Top lately? He's so musclebound he'd probably tear the head off the first person who tried.

[HBHB]

12:08 PM on 11/23/2009

"no arrests have been made" - give me a break. relax.

[flahkoh]

11:57 AM on 11/23/2009

Some of my best friends are gingers. And I've never thought kicking one was appropriate.

[harpo73]

11:46 AM on 11/23/2009

Kids need to be arrested, tired and jailed. Period!

[patrickmcdougal]

01:12 PM on 11/23/2009

how tired should they be made?

[harpo73]

01:40 PM on 11/23/2009

real tired as they get tried.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

01:47 PM on 11/23/2009

The American solution to everything: throw them in jail. That's worked out so well, hasn't it, with the largest prison population in the world, and by far the largest number of juveniles locked away of any country.

[Marnie1]

11:23 AM on 11/23/2009

First arrest parents of the the kids that did the attacking. And make sure their names are published.

[Tom95134]

12:23 PM on 11/23/2009

Then arrest the kids and put them in a juvenile lockup for a month. Let's see who well they like being beat on.

[KataVideo]

11:13 AM on 11/23/2009

TV doesn't make d\um\b kids do d\um\b things, but b\ad parenting allows it to happen.
However, given that the creators of that show should have realized by now that their key demo is d\um\b kids with ba\d parents, they probably should have thought for an extra 5 seconds.
Therefore.. if anyone want to start a "k\ick a li\berta\rian millionaire from suburban Denver day", I'm ALL in.