Video Proves Student Lied About "Sign Attack" at School

This is outrageous. I want to mention that the articles portraying Bowers as a victim flooded the news yesterday, though today's articles exposing her lie are fewer in comparison.

Here is a link to one of the many articles written yesterday entitled: "Student hurt after taking ant-illegal immigration sign to school." how and why the school is still suspending three Hispanic students is beyond me.

-Patricia

Athens, TX (KLTV) - A Texas student's story about being beaten by a group of Hispanic students is being called a hoax. And school officials say surveillance video blew the lid off the Texas tall tale.

Melanie Bowers and her father had told the public that Bowers was attacked by a group of Hispanic students because of an anti-illegal immigration sign she'd made.

The Athens Independent School District says the video shows Bowers walking calmly through the hall of Athens Middle School just moments after she says she was attacked by a group of students. They say at one point, you can see her scratching herself, time after time, in the face and in the neck.

"The video surveillance allowed us to go back and look at the incident to watch her as she moved throughout the hallway," says Fred Hayes, the Athens Independent School District Superintendent.

You can see Bowers walking with her friends, displaying her sign through the hallway--the sign she says sparked the attack.

"Basically, the stories...there were some inconsistencies in the story," says Hayes.

The district says that what actually happened was one student, after seeing the poster, ran up behind her. Off camera, he takes her poster, runs off, and later throws it in the trash--no fighting, no harrassment, no threats.

What the camera also doesn't show is several staff members at the school would have seen the assualt if it happened where Bowers said it did.

The location of the alleged incident was in direct sight of the front office.

"We're glad right now that the truth came out," says Hayes. "We're not glad that this student
had charges filed against her....it brings us no joy whatsoever but it certainly brings us satisfaction that we did not have a severe assault on this campus."

Now, administrators are hoping to put the whole situation behind them.

Three Hispanic students had been suspended for the incident. School officials say their punishment stands because they helped take the
poster.