Violent attack leads to school lawsuit

RUSHVILLE, Ind. (WISH) - The parents of two Rush County Middle School students plan to sue the Rush County School district after they say their sons were bullied.

One of the reported attacks was caught on the school's surveillance camera.

Austin McDaniel and Logan Thompson are 8th graders at Benjamin Rush Middle School.

Both said they were attacked on school grounds.

Their attorney said the unprovoked attacks go beyond bullying.

"To call this bullying is not enough,this is bullying on steroids," said Attorney Ron Frazier.

Frazier is talking about a 30 second video of an 8th grader being attacked.

He's now representing the boy seen here being punched repeatedly.

The boy and his family are suing Rush County Schools after they say the 13 year-old was put in extreme danger.

"It's every parents worst nightmare," Frazier said.

The boy in the video is Austin McDaniel.

The attack happened at Benjamin Rush Middle School.

"We went to the lockers and I got pummeled and after that,it was bad," McDaniel said.

On Monday, September 17th, McDaniel said he was walking to his locker when another student came up from behind and attacked him.

As you can see in the video, the blows never stop."I don't remember anything from it," McDaniel said.

Nicole McDaniel said an hour had passed before she was even notified about the attack.

"There's a lack of supervision in the school which led to a very brutal assault of my son," she said.

Then, 11 days later back at the middle school, McDaniel's friend,  Logan Thompson said he was also attacked.

Only his attacker was friends of the boy who attacked McDaniel.

"No one should ever have to be bullied or have people be mean to them," he said.

"He had been hit so hard that it just knocked him off his feet..his head hit the floor and he was complaining of a lot of pain," said Misty Thompson.

We asked Rush County Schools Superintendent Dr. John Williams about the attacks.

"I can assure our patrons and the community at large that the students and staff of the Rush County School go to school in a safe environment..the situation that has happened is an isolated situation..it's been dealt with and we're moving forward from there," Williams.

Nicole McDaniel said she's not buying that and has a message for the bullies.

"Enough is enough; it's time to stop,it's not necessary; kids go to school to learn," she said. Frazier said they plan to file tort claims in both cases.

The district then has 90 days to respond.

He said, if the school district tries to resolve the matter, that's ok.

If not, they will file suit.

Austin's father told 24 Hour News 8's Daniel MIller all you have to do is look at the video.

Now, imagine if that were your son or daughter - what would you do?

Frazier said someone from the school gave a copy of the video to Austin's mom.