You will not see the words “allegedly” or “apparently” in this column. That parlance is mostly reserved for court cases before a sentence is handed down against the defendant.
In this case, however, anyone who saw the video of what happened in a public restroom in Tracy recently knows it happened. Even though the YouTube video has been removed, it was up long enough to spread like itch weed.
If you don’t know what transpired and didn’t catch the viral video, a bunch of young kids ganged up on a boy, the much bigger leader of the hungry pack questioning him on things he had heard that this kid said about his sister.
The victim didn’t say much or fight back. He was probably too scared.
The bathroom bully taunted him for who knows how long and eventually punched him in the belly, sending him down to the filthy floor where he lay groaning in pain.
This did happen. If you didn’t see the disturbing video, which made it to Facebook — our favorite landing spot for phony news and brownie recipes — count your blessings, because it’s sad enough to crush your heart and scary enough to question, “Who would do this?” Or, “How does this happen in our sweet little prairie community where we take pride in our parks and gardens?”
What happened at Central Park recently is a reminder that even the nicest gardens have weeds.
You almost have to have seen the brazen assault to believe it happened. The catch there is, it will stick with you like a bad ad jingle. I know the kid who committed the assault — not well, but I have spoken with him before, and through or few interactions, he seemed like a decent kid. But we all have a dark side.
Thankfully, something like this doesn’t happen often here. Compared to larger cities, we are very safe, but that apples-to-oranges comparison doesn’t hold water for me. I know things happen, and kids can be downright cruel, but to have something like this happen in Tracy does make one wonder if it happens more than we think, it’s just not by kids stupid enough to record it and post it.
Tracy is not exactly the hub of danger, but this one-sided fight came on the heels of an incident involving a gunman on the loose on the outskirts of the downtown area. So, how safe are we, or our children? It’s a legitimate question, but in a small bedroom community like ours, not one that is often asked.
It’s been shared on social media that law enforcement doesn’t plan on pursuing charges against the young man. That’s a wrong on top of a wrong, and if true, is also disheartening. Turning the other cheek should never be an option when an assault occurs.
There needs to be some consequence, simple as that.
Being a bully doesn’t make an adolescent a “bad kid” in my opinion. It’s more about poor judgment and poor choices, and the “bully” tattoo isn’t usually a permanent one, unless it’s ignored. The parents of the victim of bullies will surely disagree with me, but everyone deserves a chance to learn from their mistakes and become a better human. That means he needs to be talked to by an authority figure. Perhaps that has happened already, and I hope it has because sweeping this under the proverbial rug doesn’t help anyone on either side.
The news cycle in today’s society usually runs like a waterfall, but in this case, for those close to the sad situation, it’s more like a dripping faucet that keeps them awake at night. For them, this won’t just go away, nor should it, and it should also stick with all of us because those who live here are mostly good people, and we shouldn’t allow this to leave our conscious after a certain amount of time has passed.
I didn’t initially report on this because frankly I didn’t know how to. Last week — reminding myself it’s part of my job to include things like this in the paper — I decided to write this. No names, of course, because the characters in this story are minors, but I wanted readers to know, without sensationalizing, that I didn’t ignore what happened; I just wanted to sleep on how I present this news. When something bad happens to a kid, the parent in me comes out. He sits on my left shoulder opposite the journalist holding residence on my right. Both parent and journalist are infuriated by what happened, and sharing this news with you, I concluded, would best be done in this kind of forum: an opinion piece where I can split the difference.
In the end, I can only pray that this is a very isolated incident, but it’s one we should all take very seriously.
