Yesterday, I published up to the computer a story from Athens, TX, about a girl that had gotten attacked by a bunch of Mexican kids because she had brought a "protest sign" as a part of a history class assignment. It turns out the little girl lied about the deal.
DALLAS — School officials said Wednesday that an Athens eighth-grader lied when she claimed a mob of angry students assaulted her for making a poster that read, "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration."
Surveillance cameras at Athens Middle School show Melanie Bowers, 13, purposefully making scratch marks on her face and arms in a hallway after a classmate took her poster in a "snatch-and-grab" style, Athens school Superintendent Fred Hayes said.
Bowers had told administrators she was clawed and hit after about 20 students, livid over the poster message she chose for a class project, swarmed around her and wrested the sign away.
What Hayes had earlier said was a scuffle partly borne from a heated national debate over immigration now appeared to be mostly horseplay, he said.
The whole article is here.
It turns out that some Mexican boys did steal her "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration" sign away from her. But her story about being attacked, beaten, and threatened with "rape" in the bathroom was all a lie. According to school authorities, the surveillance videos (that's a shame in itself that we need cameras in junior high schools) show that the girl scratched herself up on the arms and face. Then she tried to accuse a whole bunch of other kids.
The Ombudsman humbly apologizes!!!
I don't feel so bad about it, because some pretty sharp newshounds got sucked in, too. That cute little Chinese gal, Michele Malkin did make a note on her blog that the story was a "fake." But she didn't issue an apology for featuring it on her blog. Of course, she don't get as much computer traffic as I do, so she may not care as much about journalistic integrity as I do.
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Don't cuss nobody out, okay?