Schoolgirl pummeled for anti-illegals sign

Claims Hispanic attackers threatened rape, death in response to class project

Posted: April 09, 2008 11:45 am Eastern

WorldNetDaily

A 13-year-old East Texas girl claims 21 classmates attacked and beat her in response to a sign she made for a history class calling for an end to illegal immigration.

Melanie Bowers was among the eighth graders at Athens Middle School asked by history teacher Janet Skelton to make "protest signs" that dealt with a past issue and a current one, the Athens Daily Review reported.

Bowers' sign read: "If you love your nation, stop illegal immigration."

Friday, according to her father, J.R. Bowers, a group of students attacked her in a school hallway, slamming her head into a brick wall and scraping her face down the side of the wall, the Athens paper said.

The students then attempted to drag the girl into a restroom and threatened to "rape and kill" her, said her grandmother, Layne Wilhoite. The sign was torn up, according to her mother, Shera Bowers.

The 13-year-old later told Dallas/Fort Worth Fox TV affiliate KDFW she was not sexually assaulted but was punched, scratched and stabbed with a pen.

"They picked me up, and they tried to put me in the boys' bathroom, and they said they were about to rape me," she said. "And I just started screaming and yelling, and I was, like, 'Leave me alone! Leave me alone! Leave me alone!'"

KDFW reported three Hispanic students are serving "in-school suspensions," and school officials are considering punishing two other students. The case is now in the hands of the school district's police department to determine whether criminal charges will be filed.