New Albany students allegedly attacked for speaking Spanish on school bus
Two New Albany-Plain Local Schools students were captured on video getting beaten by a female student who allegedly attacked them for speaking Spanish on a district school bus.
One video posted on Instagram April 20 by Freddy Palma — who identifies himself in the post as the father of one of the young people attacked — shows a student in a camouflage-patterned jacket arguing with a student in a red sweatshirt. At one point, the girl in the red sweatshirt says, "You actually want me to fight you right now?" and calls the other girl a hypocrite.
After the student in the red sweatshirt turns away, the other student grabs her and pulls her to the ground while punching her. A second video from a more distant viewpoint of the incident, which happened April 14, also posted by Palma, shows a student attempting to intervene and then being pushed to the ground and attacked as well.
In the post, Freddy Palma wrote in Spanish that the two students were his daughter Isabella and her friend Antonella Belsito — although he did not identify who was who in the video — and reported that they were the victims of a racist act of violence.
Video of New Albany school bus incident garners national attention
In a subsequent interview with Telemundo, Palma said in Spanish that the incident began with the attacker's brother insulting the two girls on the bus. Isabella Palma told Telemundo that the girl who attacked her and her friend had accused them of being racist, which is why one of the girls called the attacker a hypocrite.
Freddy Palma wrote in the Instagram post that the family had filed a complaint about the incident with the district, but claimed the district was ignoring the situation. Palma added in the post that his daughter and her friend were afraid to go back to school due to possible retaliation from the student who attacked them.
Isabella Palma told Telemundo in Spanish that she was scared and did not want to see the other girl at school. When asked whether she will speak Spanish in public, she said, "I don't care, I'm going to keep speaking my language."
Multiple attempts by The Dispatch to reach Freddy Palma and his family were not successful.
In response to a request for comment from The Dispatch, district officials provided a message that was sent to families on April 27.
The message indicated that the incident was being actively investigated by school administrators and the Columbus Division of Police as it happened in a section of the city where students attend New Albany schools.
The district said the students involved attended New Albany Middle School and New Albany Intermediate School, but provided no more information about them.
"School bus video, statements, police reports and witness interviews were used to determine the facts and to afford all students involved their due process rights before issuing disciplinary action," the message read.
"We remind students and families that the Student Code of Conduct is in full force at school, but also when students are traversing to and from school from their home, at bus stops, on all forms of transportation and during school sponsored interscholastic sports, clubs, groups or activities."
New Albany-Plain Local Schools spokesman Patrick Gallaway wrote in an email to The Dispatch that no details about how the district has addressed the situation could be released "due to student privacy."
Previous racist incident in New Albany
The incident isn't the first time New Albany-Plain Local Schools has garnered attention for issues related to race. Last year, school officials found "inappropriate, threatening and racial statements" on the district's campus written in high school bathrooms.
At the time, the district also discovered social media posts from two middle school students and one high school student "inciting or potentially threatening violence," the district wrote in a message to families. That message indicated that the bathroom graffiti also included inappropriate racist statements directed towards students and a staff member.
When asked about what the district was doing to prevent race-related incidents like the ones last year and last month, Gallaway pointed to a district initiative called "Building an Inclusive Campus Culture." It is a framework for the district to, among other things, encourage cultural awareness and "develop a culture of belonging that builds trusting relationships with all students and their families."
Dispatch photographer/videographer Courtney Hergesheimer contributed to this article.
mylee@dispatch.com
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Were they punched for speaking Spanish on New Albany school bus?
