I wanted to reply to your comment about the boy who stepped in to stop this appalling beating. I say “THANK YOU”, to him. When I was younger I was the target of relentless teasing and bullying. I am sure there is more to the reasons as to why these two boys decided to victimize another human being. This truly breaks my heart to see kids who have no thought about causing pain of another.

Thank You.

Thank you, Stephen. Very courageous!

I believe that the kid Stephen Raines did a great job stepping in and keeping the situation from escalating any further.But it really shouldn't been his job.The bus driver could've done more being a responsible adult.When I was a kid on a school bus and something like this happening the Bus driver would've not only pull the bus over but detain those kids involved and had them taken back to the school to have the parents notified.But that was the late 70s.

As a graduate of BTHS West, I'd like to think that I would have done the same as Mr. Raines.
If I had been the driver, I would have done what I could to separate the three students involved. I just heard Larry Connor's follow-up about the driver having "no place to pull over". If necessary, and I think this was, I would have stopped right there in the traffic lane and ejected the two attackers from the bus. Let them explain later WHY they had to walk to school!

I am shocked, first that it happened, proud of the youth who stopped it, dissapointed in the driver who didn't pull over and call the police, and well not shocked by BT Rice...but I am sick of his nonsense. Why is it he can disagree strongly with Mayor Slay and not be a racist, BT can disagree Bush and not be a Racist, but the minute one white guy disagrees with Pres Obama, the man's a racist...why cause he is white? nonsense!! Well by his own logic BT would be a racist every time he disagrees with a white guy. Fact is congress has now after all the nonsense submitted a change in the bill to exclude illegals, did so just today, that would make Wilson right, but to BT he is a racist, why cause he is white. Fact is Wilson may have done it in the wrong venue...but based upon the actions today and his first ammendment rights Wilson was right. Fact is poeple's right to disagree with the government is why we have a first ammendment, and Obama is not excluded from facing this. BT needs to read the constitution. Further BT needs to look at the video...there is no connection between Wilson and the assault in Bellville. Fact is BT is just counting on/preying upon white liberal guilt to change the subject. BT is the problem here, well him and the punk kids that beat the other kid, not America, and not those who protest a government action they disagree with and want to stop.

This was not a fight. A fight is when two or more individuals mutually attempt to inflict violence upon each other. This was a beating. No one deserves thissort of savageness, regardless of this circumstances. The brutality and level of violence in these individuals needs to be dealt with before their punishment is over and they grow up and move on to offend again.

The district superintendent stated that it needed to be a teachable moment and I do agree. My high schooler watched this tape and we discussed mob action and how quickly it causes things to escalate. Not only do the two suspects deserve punishment, those cheering, taunting, and taking photos need to take responsibility for their part in this.

Kudos to Mr. Raines and his family. Someone loved this young man enough to instill strong values of right and wrong into his makeup.

I hope there are more heroes in this school (and others facing these sorts of challenges). Heroes who say, "You can ride to and from school with me." or "You can hang out with me at school and don't worry, no one will hassle you." or simply "I'm sorry this happened to you. I care."

I also hope that more of the pop culture icons start to show by example that being a thug is not the road to fame and fortune but is the road to disdain and need.

It's great that the news is able to cover these issues, but god for sake, why all the repetitiveness. All this does is promote animosities by running it into the ground and adding more fuel to the fire, than what is needed.

Even other schools, Collinsville Students to be exact, were shown and questioned about this incident........what's the point? Why not just get the entire area in a uproar..... and I hate to say this, but then it does turn into a racial issue because by the time it gets back to the original story, it is so BLOWN OUT of proportion and the true be so stretched. And for what, news ratings.

Please for god sake, get off the self destructing soap boxes. It's a no wonder we can't advance within our communities with news broadcast such as these. Some news is NOT good news when ran into the ground. Channel 4 does a good job of doing this.

The interview by Harry Smith on the morning show with Steve Raines was interesting. Mr. Smith asks Mr. Raines was this racially motivated. Mr. Raines replies that he doesn't think so because there were other white kids on the bus and they were not attacked. So Mr. Smith concludes with the statement that this is just "a case of bullying", I presume because the attacker did not continue around the bus and systematically beat up the other white kids one by one.
It was also reported that the boy who was attacked did not have to go to the hospital, presumably, this was supposed to comfort us into thinking that his injuries were not serious. I watched this video a number of times and if this boy did not go the hospital after receiving this many blows to the head someone else needs their head examined.
Maybe the bus driver should have acted. Maybe he was white and was afraid if he interfered he would become part of the problem and wind up being accused of a "racially motivated" attack himself.
This points up once again that to try to decide whether something is racially motivated is absolute folly. The bottom line is no one knows or can guess what is in any attackers head when he decides to attack another human being and the thought that we can somehow decide what the reasoning is for an attack and hand out more punishment based on motives is insane. I don't care why he did it...just like I don't care why a white boy would attack a black boy in the same set of circumstances. It's just wrong plain and it's about time that we stopped dismissing all black on white crime as "bullying" and stop branding all white on black crime as "racially motivated". In other words, let's treat crime against blacks and whites fairly, as if no color exists...because isn't that what we're aiming for ??

Wow!

Steven waited through two vicious beatings of the victim before he stepped in. Is that a hero?

You want us to "Share St. Louis" with a bunch of hate mongers who will not even share a bus seat with a white kid and with the leader of the NAACP who passes it off as a result of some one who told Obama that he lied. Apparently we must also share St. Louis with someone who cannot tell the difference between politics and racism.

I think you guys have beaten this story to death. Move on or I will move to chanel 5.

I am sad the incident has happened and would not wish that on anyone's child. No one should be attacked, but News 4 always presents an imbalanced side to every news story that involves african americans. Case in point the bus situation; the video was played over and over, but the next day when another child from a different school was presented on news four and his parents stated he was beaten up, there was no video no pictures of the youth shown over and over, the story was presented once and never shown again. I am almost positive they were probably both of the same race. The same issue exist in regard to Obama and healthcare as News 4 allowed the negative comments of individuals of a conservative national convention party to be heared over and over again while channel 5 mentioned the conservative party held a convention, expressed that comments were made about healthcare and moved on. I could give more examples which is why I very rarely look at channel four news. It is clear that news four is a republican news station, very bias and just because you have an african american news anchor, your station still seem to promote racism and economic division.

I like how you think, but I add that courage springs from character, conscience, and conviction... something sadly lacking in so many today.