Southwestern student being held after gay pride flag assault – Jacksonville Journal-Courier
PIASA — A Southwestern High School student was being held Monday in a juvenile detention center following the assault of another student over a rainbow-colored flag usually associated with support for gay rights.
The assault happened Thursday at the high school, during what was meant to be a flag-themed day. According to accounts, a 17-year-old student was told by another student to get rid of the rainbow flag. As the teen asked why, another student apparently ran up and started punching him in the head while trying to remove the flag by force.
The teen was injured, but the extent of the injuries was unclear.
Macoupin County Sheriff’s Department referred questions to the state’s attorney’s office because the student who was detained is a minor.
State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison confirmed the event and said the accused assailant was charged with aggravated battery.
There was no mention of whether the act would be considered a hate crime, which could bring heightened penalties. In Illinois, a hate crime generally is one “committed on the basis of the victim’s perceived or actual race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or national origin,” according to the Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes.
Southwestern High School Principal Mark Healy declined to comment and referred questions to district Superintendent Kyle Hacke.
“It was red, white and blue day,” Hacke said. Although he said he could not go into detail, he confirmed “there was an assault on Thursday.”
Social media postings obtained by the Journal-Courier showed some terse exchanges among several students after the incident. One student posted, “You wear a gay Pride flag to school and you don’t expect people to do anything? You go to Southern (sic) High, where we support the Confederate flag and you wonder why you get beat up?”
In another posting, a student asked what happened:
“Some gay kid brought a gay pride flag in and some kid beat the (expletive) out of him.”
The student responded, “Well don’t send him in a country ass school wearin’ some gay (expletive) if you don’t want his ass beat.”