Cartoon, Facebook, Parents Blamed for Assault

November 21, 2009, Calabasas—

The Sheriff’s Department says that a 12-year-old student at A.E. Wright was assaulted Friday morning by a group of students inspired by a “National Kick A Ginger Day” posting on Facebook.

The victim, a 7th grader, was attacked by a large group of male students. His injuries were not described by authorities, but police say they did not require hospitalization.

The boy’s parents brought him to the Los Hills Sheriff’s Station, saying that he had been assaulted in two separate incidents.

Due the ages of the alleged victim and attackers, authorities are releasing no names at this time. No arrests have been made.

In 2005, the animated adult show South Park aired an episode where the often racist and anti-semitic Cartman delivers a hate speech against “gingers,” people with red hair, freckles and pale skin. From there, it gets more complicated. (See the full episode here.)

The episode appears to have inspired the Facebook sites “National Kick a Ginger Day” which has been posted in several versions. One site had gained over 20,000 members before being taken down, and its teenaged creator says it was only a joke.

In online postings, parents and fellow students have blamed South Park for sparking the whole concept, Facebook for not better policing the millions of user-created pages on its site and parents for raising kids who would be so stupid and malevolent.

This isn’t the first time “National Kick A Ginger Day” has created problems. Last year the concept spread into several Canadian schools

Aaron Mishkin, a redheaded Canadian boy, initially thought little of the mentions he heard of the day.

“But then I left the class, and we have seven minutes to get to the next class, and I was amazed by the amount of people that kicked me along the way,” said Mishkin.

Mishkin says he was kicked or hit about 80 times last November 20th, including a group assault as school ended.

“I was amazed by the lack of compassion in the people that I knew,” he said. “I just never thought that people were capable of that before.”

Several students were charged in Canada, but no serious actions were taken.

In Calabasas, the Sheriff’s Department says the investigation is continuing.

Responses to “Cartoon, Facebook, Parents Blamed for Assault”

1. DiamondetNovember 23rd, 2009 - 8:04 am

   Does it seem like there’s a “groupthink” violence trend among kids? Or is it just one other area where things haven’t improved much since we were kids? The internet & lax parenting might be blamed – but problems like this have been going on for years. Kids who want an excuse to be bad will use anything.

    

   I was the victim of a sudden group attack when I was in Middle School… one day a certain girl was my best friend and then suddenly there were rumors flying around school that she was going to beat me up after school. The reason – she said I bit her. However, the bite marks on her arm matched her teeth – mine were crooked. The reality is that I was small and rather naïve and I had recently moved there from rural New York – I was no city girl. Easy prey.

    

   Sure enough – in the three-block walk home it seemed the whole school followed this girl and me as she taunted me. I don’t remember exactly how, but it we ended up in an undeveloped lot and she pushed me down a couple of times, and then I’d get back up again. I wouldn’t fight her – for one thing I didn’t know how. The only kid that was on my side was a girl who had moved from Korea and didn’t understand the language or the behavior. Neither did I!

    

   Finally, it ended when the girls’ big sister broke it up. Looking back, I wonder if it was the big sister & her friends who started the whole thing – to get her little sister to “toughen up.” Even though the fight was 1-on-1, my problems didn’t end there  – every now & then I’d get suddenly shoved into lockers in the hallway by various girls. For a while (was it weeks or months?) I hung out in the office after school until my parents picked me up. My parents also got me into the band, which opened up a whole different world of friends to me.

    

   Needless-to-say, I’m rather protective of my own kids. They don’t walk home and they know if they hear or see something going around to head straight to the office. The wimp isn’t the kid that gets beatup – it’s the one that stands by and does nothing.

    

2. KrystalNovember 23rd, 2009 - 8:13 pm

   helloooo dont these kids no when to say no? 

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