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Last updated on Saturday, August 25, 2012
(INDIANAPOLIS) - A Franklin Township Middle School East student has been arrested after a cellphone video of a school bus fight was posted on Facebook.
According to a police report, two students were riding home when they began fighting over seats on the bus, with one student demanding the other, "get out of his seat."
When Caleb Jones, 14, refused, the fight ensued, officials said.
Another student witnessing the fight said the student pushed Jones into his seat, knocking his head against the window.
When Jones recovered, he pushed back, but both students soon became entangled and eventually fell to the ground, witnesses said.
Jones was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries and received three staples to his head, officials said.
"I don't think I deserved it," Jones told Call 6 Investigator Kara Kenney.
Jones' mother, Lora Hoagland, has been an outspoken advocate for free busing in Franklin Township, where parents were required to pay a fee last year.
"(The video) cut through me like a knife. No mother wants to see her kid get beat up on for standing up for what's right," she said. "I taught my son to stand up for what's right, but no mother should have to witness that. No kid should have to go through that."
A message police believe was from the boy who started the fight was posted beneath the Facebook video.
"lmao dat lil (expletive) dat wassnt nun i hit him three times nun major yaa-noo," the posting read.
The boy was arrested on preliminary charges of battery and disorderly conduct. His mother told RTV6 that her son has been suspended from school.
Franklin Township Community Schools released a statement Friday regarding the altercation.
"Franklin Township Community Schools took immediate action, including both our law enforcement and the IMPD, following ... safety protocols and procedures," part of the statement read. "(We are) taking appropriate and swift action regarding this matter."
Hoagland wants the other student to be expelled and said the district needs to investigate bullying issues.
"If you violently attack someone, you need to be expelled. You need to be out of that school," she said. "The bullying has to stop. The bullying on the buses, the bullying in the school, it has to stop."
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