Billy Wolfe
A little before 8 o' clock he stands on the corner of the sidewalk with his little sister when a yellow car pulls up with a boy who tells his brother beside him that he’s going to beat up Billy Wolfe. While one records the assault with a cellphone camera, the other walks up to him and punches him hard enough to leave a fist-size welt on his forehead. The video shows Billy staggering, then dropping his book bag to fight back. But the screaming of his little sister stops everyone. The aggressor heads to school, to show friends the video of his Billy moment, while Billy heads home.
No one knows why Billy was singled out at the age of 12. Maybe because he was so tall, or wore glasses, or has a learning disability that affects his reading comprehension. Maybe some were bored and saw him as an easy target. His parents, Curt and Penney, made it their duty to investigate the reason for his abuse. They have binders of school records and police reports, along with photos documenting the bruises and black eyes. They are well known to school officials, perhaps even too well known, but they make no apologies for being vigilant. The many incidents seem to blur together into one protracted assault. When Billy attaches a bully’s name to one beating, his mother corrects him. “That was Benny, sweetie,” she says. “That was in the eighth grade.”
It began years ago when a boy called the house and asked Billy if he wanted to buy a sex toy. Billy told his mother, who informed the boy’s mother. The next day the boy showed Billy a list with the names of 20 boys who wanted to beat Billy up. Ms. Wolfe says she and her husband saw it coming. She says they tried to warn school officials and, no surprise, the prank caller beat up Billy in the bathroom of McNair Middle School. Not long after, a boy on the school bus pummeled Billy, but somehow Billy was the one suspended, despite his claims that the bus cameras would show him as the victim. Things got worse. At Woodland Junior High School, some boys in a wood shop class convinced a bigger boy that Billy had been insulting his mother. Billy, busy building a miniature house, didn’t see it coming: the boy hit him so hard in the cheek that he briefly lost consciousness.
Ms. Wolfe remembers the family dentist sewing up the inside of Billy’s cheek, and a school official refusing to call the police, saying it looked like Billy got what he deserved. By now Billy feared school. In ninth grade, a couple of the same boys started a FaceBook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” It featured a photograph of Billy’s face superimposed over a likeness of Peter Pan, and provided this description of its purpose: “There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.”
Not long afterward, a student in Spanish class punched Billy so hard that when he came to, his braces were caught on the inside of his cheek. They sued one of the bullies “and other John Does,” and are considering another lawsuit against the Fayetteville School District. Their lawyer, D. Westbrook Doss Jr., said there was neither glee nor much monetary reward in suing teenagers, but a point had to be made: schoolchildren deserve to feel safe.
No one knows why Billy was singled out at the age of 12. Maybe because he was so tall, or wore glasses, or has a learning disability that affects his reading comprehension. Maybe some were bored and saw him as an easy target. His parents, Curt and Penney, made it their duty to investigate the reason for his abuse. They have binders of school records and police reports, along with photos documenting the bruises and black eyes. They are well known to school officials, perhaps even too well known, but they make no apologies for being vigilant. The many incidents seem to blur together into one protracted assault. When Billy attaches a bully’s name to one beating, his mother corrects him. “That was Benny, sweetie,” she says. “That was in the eighth grade.”
It began years ago when a boy called the house and asked Billy if he wanted to buy a sex toy. Billy told his mother, who informed the boy’s mother. The next day the boy showed Billy a list with the names of 20 boys who wanted to beat Billy up. Ms. Wolfe says she and her husband saw it coming. She says they tried to warn school officials and, no surprise, the prank caller beat up Billy in the bathroom of McNair Middle School. Not long after, a boy on the school bus pummeled Billy, but somehow Billy was the one suspended, despite his claims that the bus cameras would show him as the victim. Things got worse. At Woodland Junior High School, some boys in a wood shop class convinced a bigger boy that Billy had been insulting his mother. Billy, busy building a miniature house, didn’t see it coming: the boy hit him so hard in the cheek that he briefly lost consciousness.
Ms. Wolfe remembers the family dentist sewing up the inside of Billy’s cheek, and a school official refusing to call the police, saying it looked like Billy got what he deserved. By now Billy feared school. In ninth grade, a couple of the same boys started a FaceBook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” It featured a photograph of Billy’s face superimposed over a likeness of Peter Pan, and provided this description of its purpose: “There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.”
Not long afterward, a student in Spanish class punched Billy so hard that when he came to, his braces were caught on the inside of his cheek. They sued one of the bullies “and other John Does,” and are considering another lawsuit against the Fayetteville School District. Their lawyer, D. Westbrook Doss Jr., said there was neither glee nor much monetary reward in suing teenagers, but a point had to be made: schoolchildren deserve to feel safe.