A 16-year-old high school girl in Rock Hill, S.C. told police another female peer taunted her on a school bus and then beat her up because she was behaving "too much like a white person," The Daily Caller reported on Monday.
Both the alleged attacker and the victim are black, The State, a Columbia, S.C. newspaper, reported
The incident happened on Thursday afternoon on a bus bringing students to Northwestern High School.
The unidentified assault victim, 16, told investigators she got off the bus on McDow Drive, a winding street decorated with small ranch-style houses. Shortly after she exited the bus, her attacker violently punched her several times, then fled the scene, she said.
A Rock Hill police report details that witnesses told the same basic story.
The police report also indicates the student who got beat up suffered various injuries including a serious cut above her right eye. An ambulance brought the girl to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Shelly Hemphill, a witness, is the mother of one of the victim's friends. The girl went to Hemphill's house after she was allegedly beaten up. Hemphill was responsible for calling the ambulance.
Hemphill told police the attacker tripped the victim and then punched her repeatedly while she was on the ground, according to The Island Packet, a Hilton Head newspaper.
The victim claimed during an interview with police that there has been an ongoing feud between the two girls for over a year. The victim described herself as a "light-skinned black female," and said the other student, who has darker skin, had made fun of her and challenged her to fight on prior occasions, but she had refused.
Hemphill also noted the school bus bully tormented the girl throughout last year as well.
"It was so bad last year they had to have a police car here when the bus let out," she said.
Police have described the incident as assault, battery and disorderly conduct in a school setting. They have not yet been able to find the alleged attacker.
