Student Charged in Violent New Brunswick High School Attack

New Brunswick, NJ - The student caught on video viciously attacking another at New Brunswick High School has been charged with assault, New Brunswick police told Patch Monday morning.

The incident happened Thursday, March 10 at approximately 12:00 p.m. in a corridor inside the high school, Captain J.T. Miller of the New Brunswick police said. A 16-year-old male student attacked a 15-year-old male freshman; punching and kicking him multiple times. The victim suffered injuries to his nose, teeth, and upper torso as a result of the attack, which another student captured on video. (Warning: This video contains graphic images of violence and language not suitable for children.)

The 16-year-old was detained and arrested at the high school Thursday and was charged with assault-related offenses, Miller said. A preliminary investigation suggests that the motive behind the assault stemmed from an argument over a female student, he said.

The parents of the victim say the New Brunswick school district did not take the matter seriously enough. They want their son's alleged attacker expelled. A school official told them it is more likely he will be suspended for seven to days, according to New Brunswick Today.

Aubrey Johnson, the superintendent of New Brunswick Public Schools, declined to comment Monday on how the student will be specifically punished, only saying that "appropriate disciplinary actions" will be taken.

"While we understand public concern about an incident that took place at New Brunswick High School on Thursday, the school district simply cannot comment on matters involving individual students," Johnson said in a statement released Monday.

The incident was immediately reported to the New Brunswick Police Department, Johnson said. Parents of the children involved were also notified, he said.

School did not call an ambulance for bleeding victim

But Johnson would not answer Patch's questions about whether an ambulance was called for the victim. The boy's parents say it was not. Instead, he was taken to the school nurse's office, where he was interviewed by New Brunswick police Detective Jamaal James, and then his father drove him to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

"After this, I no longer feel safe in school," he told New Brunswick Today.

As Patch previously reported, the victim's parents are planning a protest Tuesday outside the Board of Education's headquarters, 268 Baldwin Street, at 4:30 p.m.

"As we continue to investigate the incident, New Brunswick Public Schools will not tolerate violence in any form; even one punch is a punch too many," Johnson said. "The district will follow this protocol and ensure that students who disobey our code of conduct be dealt the appropriate disciplinary actions."