Viral Video of Fight at Orchard Mesa Middle School Raises Questions
The video brought complete strangers to tears. I've seen it twice on social media and I will never watch it again, it's disgusting. A video has now gone viral from Orchard Mesa Middle School in Grand Junction showing one student repeatedly getting punched in the face by another student until an adult attempts to break up the altercation.
The mother of the boy who was beaten in the video shared it on social media explaining that this isn't the first time that something like this has happened to her son at school. He is a special needs student and this on-going issue needs to stop now.
While we don't know what happened prior to the video beginning, we do see the boy getting beaten up and no students stepped in. The boy getting punched ended up with cuts in his mouth from wearing braces, a possible broken nose, a mild concussion, and too much swelling for a doctor to perform an X-ray of further damage.
The school district has opened an investigation and is working with local law enforcement on how to best handle this situation. There was a letter sent to Orchard Mesa Middle School families stating that "student safety is the top priority, and this kind of behavior would not be tolerated."
We as a local media outlet have a job to inform the community, but we will NEVER promote violence especially with minors being injured. Which is why we will not be sharing the video that is making its rounds on social media.
Our thoughts are with the family of the boy who was attacked and wishes him nothing but the best and a speedy recovery. Hopefully, the attacker in this video gets the help he needs because this is not normal behavior for middle school students.