A violent altercation between three teens from Huntington Beach High School in California has resulted in one of them being arrested.
In the video, a partially blind student, whom other people in the video call Austin, is being punched by another.
The student punching him has been arrested; police charged him with misdemeanor battery on Thursday. He is currently under his parents’ custody.
Huntington Beach Police Officer Jennifer Marlatt told Global News the two students had gotten into arguments in the past.
“When they crossed paths on Wednesday, they got into another argument and the suspect struck the victim first,” she said. “It didn’t have anything to do with his disability, though.”
The video, which doesn’t show the beginning of the altercation, shows the suspected bully landing a barrage of punches on the victim’s head and face.
A third student, Cody Pine, intervened and appears to have struck the suspect in the head, knocking him out.
“Are you trying to f***ing jump a blind kid?” he says to the suspect in the video.
The footage shows the suspect bleeding, and social media posts suggest that he had to get stitches.
Marlatt said there are no criminal repercussions pending for Cody.
“There’s no anticipated arrest for him, but I heard he was suspended which I can’t confirm,” she said.
Reports say Cody was also kicked off the football team for the knockout punch.
Huntington Beach Union High School District spokesperson Alyssa Griffiths would neither confirm nor deny whether Cody was suspended because he is a minor.
Griffiths did say that he was never on the football team this year, though.
“I can say that Cody Pine was never on the roster of the football team this year,” she said.
An online petition titled “Get Cody Pine back on the Football Team after defending a blind classmate against a bully!” appears to be the source of that report, and has already been signed by over 21,000 supporters.
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