One yr after a younger Black boy was violently attacked by a white man in Washington, he’s lastly getting justice. However though Paul Jonathan Bittner is going through jail, his household stated the sentence shouldn’t be sufficient.
A bunch of scholars from Whatcom Center College in Bellingham, Wash. had been getting back from a faculty area journey again in June 2024. That’s when prosecutors stated Bittner approached an 11-year-old Black pupil and punched him within the face.
If that wasn’t sufficient, the 43-year-old then shoved him to the bottom, ensuing within the younger pupil chipping his tooth and injuring his nostril, based on KIRO 7 Information Seattle. Earlier than he ran away from the scene, Bittner reportedly yelled “Are you gonna speak to a white man like that?!”
A trainer, who witnessed the assault, started chasing after Bittner. He was ultimately apprehended by police. Throughout his arrest, the white man continued to yell racial slurs, based on the Tri-Metropolis Herald. He was then charged with malicious harassment and the assault of a kid within the second diploma.
“We’re indignant and shocked by what occurred as we speak,” the varsity’s Principal Mischelle Darragh initially stated. “These occasions are extraordinarily upsetting for everybody at our faculty and past. We’re wrapping round our college students and doing all we are able to to help them.”
Bittner had been identified with schizophrenia and deemed not competent to face trial in a earlier analysis, we reported. “It’s unclear how a lot he understood the costs and allegations, whereas his refusal to debate them definitely appears to be a notable issue,” courtroom paperwork learn.
The kid’s father, DeVante Blow informed The Bellingham Herald final yr, “The hardest half about that is that my son was doing nothing. Nothing mistaken. And was attacked. Attacked due to his pores and skin coloration. As a result of he didn’t seem like his attacker.”
On Tuesday (July 15), the 43-year-old pleaded responsible to the hate crime. He’s been sentenced to 41 months behind bars. Blow, informed The Bellingham Herald, “I’m feeling as if justice was served and the neighborhood is safer,” after Bittner’s sentencing. Nonetheless, there’s work to be finished. “That doesn’t resolve the issue, so we have to resolve the issue on the core,” Blow continued. “And I consider we’re headed that manner.”
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