Video: Teen Beating of Victoria Lindsay, Cheerleader Ambush, 8 Charged as Adults
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By Lynda Johnson
Apr 10, 2008
The video of a cheerleader ambush of a student named Victoria Lindsay of Lakeland, Florida has made its way around the World Wide Web and now it has made its way into the mainstream news cycles and there is outrage that the young girl was pummeled by several of her classmates. How could this happen and what are authorities doing about it? Police are taking it seriously and now it appears the alleged attackers will be charged as adults and might face some very stiff penalties.
Video: Teen Beating of Victoria Lindsay, Cheerleader Ambush, 8 Charged as Adults
The scary attack took place in a private home and now it has made its way into the news cycle including NBC, Fox News, CNN and others and the debate is on. Lindsay was left with a concussion, a damaged eye and multiple bruises. A report from Fox News says she was "bruised from head to toe."
A link to the video is here. The NBC Today show covered the wild scene earlier this week and authorities seem ready to make examples out of the alleged attackers. A new report on Thursday claims that prosecutors in Polk County now say that they will indeed be charging the eight teens allegedly involved in the recent videotaped beating of another teenage girl as adults.
Those facing those charges as adults are Mercades Nichols, 17, Brittini Hardcastle, 17, April Cooper, 14, Cara Murphy, 16, Britney Mayes, 17, Kayla Hassell, 15, Zachary Ashley, 17, and Stephen Schumaker, 18, an earlier report from NBC noted.
The attack was supposedly in response to some name calling on the popular website MySpace and according to a report from CNN it was so severe that it left the girl unrecognizable even to her own father and with loss of hearing and sight.
Police say not only was the beating premeditated, the girls used as many as five cameras to videotape it. A new tape has also been released as well, not of this beating, but of a teacher that was attacked by a teen at school. A link to that video is here and it shows teacher Jolita Berry being ambushed by a teen in her very own school. Is this a pattern among these wild teens and what can finally get them under control?
However, MySpace didn't "make" them do anything. This could have happened 6 years ago when MySpace didn't exist. People just want to blame anything that's popular with teenagers.