16 Year Old Charged After Openly Gay Classmate Attacked

In Sellersburg, Indiana, a 16 year old Silver Creek High School student was arrested and taken to the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center after he deliberated attacked an openly gay classmate last Thursday, according to a report WAVE-3. The victim, Rito Osorio, a Silver Creek sophomore, and his family say he was targeted because of his sexual orientation. Osorio says he was eating lunch on Thursday, when a 16-year-old classmate came up, tapped him on the shoulder, and told him that they needed to talk. He says he asked him to follow him to the bathroom. "I followed him in there and when I got in there it was pretty much packed," said Osorio. "It was full of eyes just watching." Osorio says then the boy started punching him and calling him names, leaving him with several facial fractures and a broken nose. “He had a piercing under his lip, and that had been pushed up into the maxilla bone and chipped it, so it is stuck up there and is going to have to be surgically removed," said the victim's mother Andrea Osorio, adding "I really believe that he was targeted." Osorio is openly gay, and he believes that's why he was singled out by his attacker."We just need to be more tolerant as people," said Osorio. He later heard another explanation. "People have been telling him that I've been talking about him saying that he was gay or something, but I haven't been saying that," said Osorio. While Osorio insists he never spread any rumours, Sellersburg Police Chief Russ Whelan says that is what purported motivated the attack. "He was upset with the rumours that were going around the school about him that were coming from this other boy and he decided to take matters into his own hands," said Whelan, who added that "The decision you make to go in the bathroom and beat on someone as this boy did could ultimately affect him for the rest of his life," said Whelan. Silver Creek High School is conducting a separate investigation in addition to working with Sellersburg Police. Silver Creek's principal would not comment on whether or not the 16-year-old will be allowed back at school