BELLEVILLE, IL (KTVI-FOX2now.com) -
Shocked. Appalled. Those are just some the words people in Belleville, Illinois, are using in reaction to video of two high school students brutally beating a third on a school bus Monday morning. Now more light is being shed on just what happened. D'Vante Lott, 16, was on the bus headed to Belleville West High School when the fight broke out. Lott says it began with the unidentified victim looking for a seat on the bus. At least twice, students refused to let the 17 year old sit down with them, something Lott says has happened before. Lott says the teen finally knocked another student's book bag onto the floor of the bus, and that student attacked.
"I guess cuz he threw his book bag on the ground. I guess he just thought it was disrespectful," Lott says. "He didn't pick it up, then he got punched like 12 times. The first four or five hits, everybody was just in shock and didn't nobody know what to do."
Lott was among a group of students who gathered around to watch the fight, and were seen laughing. He says that's why he was one of three witnesses to the fight that were suspended in addition to the attackers.
Asked why he laughed, he had this response, "Every kid laughs in a high school will laugh. If you see a fight every kid will laugh. Any fight you see we always laugh, it's like adrenaline we just laugh."
Lott's mother, Shenico Greer, says she was appalled by the video, and has already given her son a talking to about laughing at the fight, but she doesn't think his actions merit a five day suspension from school, "He was suspended, according to the principal, for laughing, but clearly everybody saw the video. Everybody on that bus mostly was laughing and standing up."
She says she fully supports expulsion of the two students who started the fight, something she says she's told by school officials is happening.
There were suggestions by a Belleville Police Captain that there was a racial undertone to the fight between the white victim and two African-American attackers. But Lott says that's not the case, "I don't think it's like that, not at all," he contends. "I 'm cool with a lot of white people at this school and I'm black. I don't think it's nothing like that."
Belleville Superintendent Dr. Greg Moats says he's hopeful there was no racial element. This is, after all, a big high school he points out, "Any time you have 2,400 students in one place, you're going to have tension, and it's between all students and all factions."
Among his largest concerns are the actions of the school bus driver. There were two attacks over a period of several minutes, yet the bus driver never stopped or intervened, "Any adult who sees any activity on or off campus, we would hope that they would put a stop to it."
A spokesperson for First Student, the bus company, says the driver followed their procedures. He radioed the incident to dispatch and stopped the bus at the first safe location, according to Maureen Richmond, speaking by phone from headquarters in Cincinnati.
Pressed on the lengthy period of time the driver was supposedly unable to find a safe stopping point, Richmond conceded an investigation is being conducted, and they won't have all the answers until it's complete. The driver, who she wouldn't identify, has been taken off the road until then.
Meanwhile, back in Belleville, Dr. Moats is anxious to see that report. He says he can't imagine anything in it will satisfy him.
"I can't think of anything that would make me feel better about this," he says.
Belleville police anticipated pressing charges, but the State's Attorney's Office says, as of Tuesday, the case had not yet been presented to them.
"I guess cuz he threw his book bag on the ground. I guess he just thought it was disrespectful," Lott says. "He didn't pick it up, then he got punched like 12 times. The first four or five hits, everybody was just in shock and didn't nobody know what to do."
Lott was among a group of students who gathered around to watch the fight, and were seen laughing. He says that's why he was one of three witnesses to the fight that were suspended in addition to the attackers.
Asked why he laughed, he had this response, "Every kid laughs in a high school will laugh. If you see a fight every kid will laugh. Any fight you see we always laugh, it's like adrenaline we just laugh."
Lott's mother, Shenico Greer, says she was appalled by the video, and has already given her son a talking to about laughing at the fight, but she doesn't think his actions merit a five day suspension from school, "He was suspended, according to the principal, for laughing, but clearly everybody saw the video. Everybody on that bus mostly was laughing and standing up."
She says she fully supports expulsion of the two students who started the fight, something she says she's told by school officials is happening.
There were suggestions by a Belleville Police Captain that there was a racial undertone to the fight between the white victim and two African-American attackers. But Lott says that's not the case, "I don't think it's like that, not at all," he contends. "I 'm cool with a lot of white people at this school and I'm black. I don't think it's nothing like that."
Belleville Superintendent Dr. Greg Moats says he's hopeful there was no racial element. This is, after all, a big high school he points out, "Any time you have 2,400 students in one place, you're going to have tension, and it's between all students and all factions."
Among his largest concerns are the actions of the school bus driver. There were two attacks over a period of several minutes, yet the bus driver never stopped or intervened, "Any adult who sees any activity on or off campus, we would hope that they would put a stop to it."
A spokesperson for First Student, the bus company, says the driver followed their procedures. He radioed the incident to dispatch and stopped the bus at the first safe location, according to Maureen Richmond, speaking by phone from headquarters in Cincinnati.
Pressed on the lengthy period of time the driver was supposedly unable to find a safe stopping point, Richmond conceded an investigation is being conducted, and they won't have all the answers until it's complete. The driver, who she wouldn't identify, has been taken off the road until then.
Meanwhile, back in Belleville, Dr. Moats is anxious to see that report. He says he can't imagine anything in it will satisfy him.
"I can't think of anything that would make me feel better about this," he says.
Belleville police anticipated pressing charges, but the State's Attorney's Office says, as of Tuesday, the case had not yet been presented to them.
