2 in Revenge Attack on Irvine High Boy to Be Transferred

The two boys suspected of breaking the leg of a fellow Irvine High School student after he reportedly told police about drug sales will not be expelled but will be enrolled in “independent study” for the rest of the school year, a school district official said Tuesday.

The decision means the boys will not return to Irvine High School, the scene of the reported assault, but will pursue their studies at Irvine Unified School District’s San Joaquin High School, which offers a program for individualized study, said Gerald P. Rayl, an assistant to the district superintendent.

The decision was the result of an administrative hearing, reserved for serious disciplinary problems, held Friday before three independent administrators, who recommended the punishment Tuesday, Rayl said.

Face Criminal Charges

The boys, ages 16 and 17, also face separate criminal charges of assault to commit bodily injury, according to a police report.

The names of the suspects and the victim have been withheld because they are juveniles.

The victim, 15, underwent surgery for insertion of a pin in his left leg, broken near the ankle, according to police.

The incident occurred Jan. 18 near the campus bicycle rack when the 17-year-old approached the victim and asked him if he had “snitched” on his friend, according to the police report. The 17-year-old punched the victim several times, knocking him down, and then his 16-year-old friend repeatedly kicked him, even taking a “running leap,” witnesses told police.

The 16-year-old, according to the report, is on probation for auto theft and is suspected, in a separate incident, of beating a companion of the victim, who also was thought to have talked to police. The companion did not press charges in the other incident.

Coincidentally, police were on the campus at the time of the beating because they were speaking to the vice principal about several students they had found in adjacent Heritage Park. One of the students had marijuana in her purse, the report said. When news of the beating reached the administrator’s office, the police recognized the name of the victim, according to the report.

Suspects Suspended

The two suspects were suspended from school, the police report indicated. The victim was transferred to another school out of fear of retaliation, the report states.

The mother of the victim declined to comment on the school district’s disciplinary action Tuesday.

Rayl said the two boys will be placed in the independent study program for the remainder of the school year to continue their 11th-grade studies.

The alternative program at San Joaquin High School is designed for students who “do not do well in regular, comprehensive high school” or for those who have scheduling problems because of work, Rayl said.