I must say that this is unacceptable, but not exclusive to gay students. A three day suspension is a typical response to bullying like this. I had the shit kicked out of me and I kicked the shit out of some others who had bullied me, each time I got a suspension. In fact I know of a student who had his skull split open by me and I did get a two week suspension and a warning still no expulsion and no police involvement. (P.S the student who's skull I split was attacking me and I did not intend to do that kind of damage

Fact is violence in schools whether it be bullying or any other fighting. It is simply tolerated and it shouldn't be. I think the mother pressing charges is a good thing. Personally I think the police should have arrested the kid for assault and battery.

The problem is it is a minor, parent's of these bullies protect their children from the consequences of their actions. Personally I think a six month stint in Juvenile hall would be a good way of dealing with this kid. Honestly in the cases where I kicked peoples asses it was in self defense but this is where the problem comes in.

Bullies will either bully a student till they kill themselves or till they defend themselves. If the student kills themselves a few people cry and they go "This could have been prevented" if the bullies defend themselves suddenly its "Oh my look at the bad guy". Then you get situations like Columbine and school shootings and people scream outraged, yet their dumb ass kids are the ones to blame.

Anti-Bullying laws need to be enforced across the world. Any student committing a crime such as harassment or assault should be charged as a minor and sent to juvenile hall. As for the other students not jumping in, students are morons and usually don't intervene unless their friend or they themselves are in any danger. This is a major problem with individualism which is being taught to children these days.

I guess since I am a straight, white male that doesn't make me special enough if someone beat the shit out of me to prosecute them even more than the original crime.   I say charge the person with what crime they commit.  To tack on hate crimes in some cases is pure bs such as charging teenagers that vandalize a Synagogue with a hate crime. 

Already expanding the line I see.  Nintendo fans have to endure countless name calling, heckling, and false assumptions from the other fanboys the most on the internet.  We are a group that gets singled out.  If most of these little and big fools were talking to me in real life they would most likely back down from my Viking ass.

Well, if someone beat you up for being a straight white male, then it would surely be a hate crime. Motive is a factor when deciding how to punish a criminal. And I'm quite sure teenagers who would vandalize a Synagogue would be antisemites, and probably skin heads. Of course their act would be a hate crime.

I can give you two personal experiences that one could be consider racial that was done unintentionally by me and that I was unware of.  I sometimes called Japanese by their shorter WW2 name probably because I might have heard it from my Grandpa that happen to fight in WW2 on a destroyer against the Japanese.  Anyways, I was then corrected in high school computer lab after I typed it in and the teacher overhearing/seeing which then I was informed I shouldn't use anymore.  Another time I was working at a previous job and happened to say a line from Foghorn leghorn "i said, i said" then I continued on with "now boy, now boy" to two people that happened to be black which then I was informed that wasn't a good term to use to African American.  They eventually realized that I had no clue what I did and I probably did the Foghorn leghorn impersonation a few more times to them goofing off.  I didn't do my research on derogatory terms when I came down to Texas since I grew up in Ohio and never really dealt with any racial prejudice towards any race.

Main point I am trying to make is that the person can get their ass kicked for many reasons or a crime might be committed that wasn't really intentionally hate motivated and to charge them with hate crime felony charges is unjust.

you cant accidentally commit a hate crime because you cant accidentally hate someone.

How about little kids throwing rocks through a place of worships' windows and breaking in/messing up the place a little?  Should they be charged with a hate crime?

they could be.  i guess that depends on why they did it and how old they are. 

I find it pretty disturbing that so many people on this site can't distinguish why violence directed at a specific group because of that groups traits is worse than random acts of violence. The 9/11 attacks and most terrorism for that matter, acts of genocide and some wars occur when groups of like minded people target specific groups. These things are obviously far worse than a random murder or beating.

Your comparisons are mass murder vs one death or one beating.

If a group of people went around with guns and shot up a bunch of random people in a town for no good reason, or just randomly killed people like the Manson family do you really think people would say "Well gee that's not as bad."

Not a chance.

Again though... I ask you.  If someone kills someone because they're gay, and someone else kills someone because they just felt like killing someone...  What other crimes does the second person have to comit to be "just as bad"