Las Vegas Mother calls circulation of beating video a case of cyberbullying
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) – A vicious after-school fight was caught on camera and posted to social media.
A Las Vegas mother said her son was attacked while walking home from school. She saw video of the incident posted to Facebook and believes the video constitutes cyberbullying.
The victim, eight-grade student Wanyeih Brown, said it took only a few hours for the video to be shared among his classmates. He stayed home from school on Tuesday and said he has no plans to return.
“One of my friends sent it to me. I said, ‘What is this?’ He said, ‘Bro, they got you messed up,’” Wanyeih said.
Wanyeih said he was walking home along Flamingo Arroyo Trail, behind Jerome D Mack Middle School, when he was approached by up to eight people. He said some of them were classmates, and others were adults.
Wanyeih said he believes the attack was retaliation for a fight that took place on Friday. He admitted to participating in that fight. Wanyeih’s mother, Alicia Davis, said he punched someone after they punched him.
“I was curled up in a ball, trying to avoid injuries to the head, and they said, ‘Kick him! Kick him!’” Wanyeih said.
Someone tried to break the fight up. Wanyeih said the beating continued after the video stopped rolling.
“I climbed down this ladder right here, and I ran and slipped in the water right here, and that’s when they caught me and started kicking me and stuff,” he said.
Wanyeih said he managed to run away and made it to his doorstep.
“When I opened the door he was standing there in tears with the knots in his face,” said Davis.
Davis is highly upset that the video was shared on Facebook.
“So now it’s like, ‘I can show you and everybody else that I beat you up, show that to you, and you can’t say I didn’t.’ So yeah, it’s a power thing,” she said.
Davis admitted that her son has not always been a well-behaved student.
Wanyeih said the video embarrassed him.
“If I go back to school, people are going to be staring at me and talking about it and asking me what happened,” he said.
Wanyeih has asked his mother to place him in a different school.
The Clark County School District said that because the incident occurred at an off-campus location, it is not currently being investigated.
Davis has filed a report with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. A Metro spokesperson told FOX5 the incident is being investigated and that misdemeanor battery charges are a possibility.
