Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Teen Blinded In Anti-Gay Middle School Attack

Kardin Ulysse, 14, blinded in anti-gay bullying attack at a Bergen Beach middle school (New York Daily News photo).

Brooklyn, New York – A 14-year-old student was blinded in one eye in a brutal anti-gay attack at his middle school in Bergen Beach. The June 5 attack was part of a pattern of hate attacks against Kardin Ulysse, whose parents chose Roy H. Mann Junior High School for their son because they thought it was the best school in the area, according to the New York Daily News.  Now, his father Pierre says he knows they were wrong. In excellent reporting, the NYDN graphically presents the outrageous outcome of the brutal attack that has led to two surgeries on Kardin’s eye already:

“My son is very upset. He says, ‘Daddy, am I ever going to be able to see again?’ ” Pierre Ulysse said Monday.

His son, Kardin Ulysse, 14, has undergone two surgeries on his right eye since the June 5 beatdown at Roy H. Mann Junior High School in Bergen Beach. It is unclear whether the bullies’ multiple punches or the broken shards of lens from his eyeglasses caused the damage to his cornea.

“The doctor says he needs a transplant,” Pierre Ulysse said. “For me to send him to school with two eyes and come back with one eye is really absurd.

“I want the world to know about this,” he added.

Kardin, an eighth-grader, was set upon by a pair of seventh-graders who were calling him a “f—–g f—-t,” a “p—-,” a “transvestite” and “gay,” according to a Department of Education occurrence report.

The NYDN further reports that authorities are considering charging the attackers with a hate crime, given the heinous nature of the assault. Hate crimes are a felony in New York.  At present, because the attackers are minors, they are charged with misdemeanors in Family Court.

Instinct Magazine reports that the Ulysse family has hired an attorney, and plans to sue the city for $16 million.  His parents say they want the whole world to know what happened at the school to their son, so that the “madness” of anti-gay bullying will stop.

The horror and irony of this fiendish attack is that Kardin Ulysse’s assailants used his supposed gayness as a pretext for their brutality because homosexuality was the worst epithet they could think of, and their suspicion served as the fictional justification for their assault. There is no evidence or admission that young Ulysse is in fact gay. Instead, he must be presumed to be otherwise. The mere suspicion of weakness or effeminacy is deadly in middle school culture in the United States, and this utterly unjustified attack is one more evidence that anti-gay bullying is a bias crime, and deserves to be treated as such by law enforcement and the courts.

June 19, 2012 - Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, Bullying in schools, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, LGBTQ, Mistaken as LGBT, New York, Slurs and epithets, U.S. Department of Education | , , , , , , , , , ,

7 Comments

  1. They’re “considering” charging them with a hate crime? CONSIDERING?!? are you freaking kidding me?!? When is enough really enough?

    Comment by Tristan | June 19, 2012

  2. This is indeed madness. The DA is being a coward. This is a felony and should be convicted as such. It doesn’t matter that they’re minors if they act like bigoted savages.

    Comment by Kat Stilwell | June 19, 2012

    • I got it online. Just google “pride wristband” and you will see how easy it is to order one. Thanks!

      Comment by unfinishedlives | June 20, 2012

  3. And people wonder why kids who are bullied come back and shoot students and teachers. If you put up with this crap long enough, you’re gonna snap and kill yourself, or someone else.

    Comment by Christopher Bruce | June 23, 2012

  4. Stupid bullies, they couldn’t imagine, how much pain they make to their victims. When you sowing hate, you will reap much more hate

    Comment by Shrike | June 28, 2012

  5. […] Brooklyn, New York – A 14-year-old student was blinded in one eye in a brutal anti-gay attack at his middle school in Bergen Beach […]

    Pingback by Gay news | desertdailyguide.com | July 2, 2012

  6. I was taken into custody by police because of a curfew order saying under 16s should not be on the streets at night. They called my parents and me thinking i was in deep shit admitted everything. I should not have been out, my friends were noisy and causing a nuisance.
    My Dad was ready to really discipline me until he found out were i was arrested. I was outside our house with friends just talking. Nobody reported us because the neighbours knew who we were. Stupid curfew laws gave the police to stop and detain any teenager.
    Passing patrol spotted us and because the curfew law was new decided to make an example.
    Getting taken into custody for standing and talking outside your own house.
    Cost them a pretty penny, dad was happy, mum was very happy. I also dont have to worry about student fees now i’m at university.

    Comment by Paul | July 6, 2012


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