Student taken into custody for choking attack

Danette Goulet

CORONA DEL MAR -- A 13-year-old Corona del Mar Middle School student was

taken into custody by Newport Beach Police on Tuesday for allegedly

choking a classmate in an attempt to steal a homework pass.

The boy he attacked spent two days in the intensive care unit at Hoag

Hospital following the May 23 altercation.

The boys’ names were not released because they are minors.

Principal Don Martin said students in a morning gym class had just

returned to the school’s tennis courts after running a lap when one

student grabbed another by the throat, demanding he turn over a homework

pass. The gym teacher had left the area to retrieve athletic equipment

and did not witness the incident.

The attacker was reported to have been going around to many other

students that day looking for a pass, which excuses a student from doing

his or her homework assignments for one night. The tickets are

distributed by teachers as a reward for various reasons, including good

behavior or citizenship.

Shortly after the choking attack began, the victim started to lose

consciousness. The attacker immediately released his hold on the boy, who

then fell backward and hit his head on the cement, witnesses told Martin.

“I think his intention was to scare the kid into giving him what he

wanted,” Martin said. “After just a few minutes, the kid lost air. When

he let him go, he fell backward and hit his head.”

The incident did not completely come to light until late last week

because students who witnessed the attack did not immediately come

forward and report it right away.

“There is a kind of pecking order thing with middle school kids,” Martin

said. “Girls are horrible in one way; boys are horrible in another. ...

With boys, it’s more physical.”

After the attack, the victim was sent to the school nurse and then home

with his mother. However, she rushed him to the hospital after the boy

reportedly became incoherent and vomited in the car, said Sgt. Mike

McDermott, spokesman for the Newport Beach Police Department.

The boy is no longer in the hospital, but has not returned to school.

“He has some memory loss of what happened,” Martin said. “He had good

recall except of the incident itself.”

Police said the victim suffered head injuries, most likely from the fall,

and is currently taking anti-seizure medication.

The attacker was suspended from school, but now faces much more serious

consequences.

He was taken into custody by police at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday on suspicion of

battery with great bodily injury.

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office will determine whether the

case should be handled formally with a hearing, or informally and

referred to the Probation Office. The district attorney’s decision, which

is made in conjunction with the probation office, usually takes six to

eight weeks, McDermott said.

If the student is found guilty, he could be put in a juvenile detention

facility until his 24th birthday, McDermott said, although that level of

punishment is usually reserved for more serious crimes.