Melanie Bowers: Not really attacked...

As a follow up to this post, which mentions a 13 year old girl who claimed she was attacked by fellow students for bringing an anti-illegal immigration sign to school... well, it looks like she made the whole thing up.

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 real error in this whole thing lies in the young lady telling lies," Hayes said.

Hayes said the school is pursuing misdemeanor criminal charges against the girl for making a false report.

The girl's parents apologized for their daughter in a written statement provided by school officials. They did not immediately return requests for comment.

The alleged scuffle led to the suspension of three Hispanic students. Hayes said on Tuesday that witnesses reported seeing the three make physical contact with their white classmate.

The students returned to class Wednesday, but Hayes said their punishment remained appropriate because they still were involved in taking the poster. Hayes said one snatched the sign and the others encouraged the plot, although Bowers was never hurt.

Hayes said he apologized to the parents of the suspended students.

"Those students were cast in a negative light," he said.

J.R. Bowers, the girl's father, wrote in the statement provided by school officials that he agreed that charges will need to be filed against his daughter.

"I see that my daughter was not assaulted and put the marks on her body," Shera Bowers, the girl's mother, wrote.

News of the alleged attack over an anti-immigration poster — and the suspension of the three Hispanic students — touched off a flurry of comments on the Internet and to the Athens school district.

Hayes had said that the district received messages from people well outside Athens, a city of 12,000 about 70 miles south of Dallas. He had said that "some of these people are irrational in some of the e-mails that they've been sending me about these young people."

On Tuesday, Hayes said he was not surprised by the alleged scuffle because of the passions stirred by the immigration debate. He also critized the class project as being inappropriate for middle school students.

Hayes said the school district would consider placing Bowers in an alternative school.

J.R. Bowers, who had agreed that the class project was too advanced for eighth-graders, had said Tuesday that he was holding his daughter out of class for the rest of the week.

I've previously covered others who made up allegations apparently to gain attention. In this case perhaps age can be considered a factor, even if the overall maturity factor is about the same as others who've done similar things.

Attention Whore: Trifecta Complete

In two previous posts we discussed allegations of criminal behavior which turned out of have been perpetrated by the alleged victim.

In the first a Jewish woman was drawing swastikas on her dorm room door. In the second a Otterbein College student fabricated a story that she was attacked.

The trifecta is now complete.

Fire Dept. Suspends Apprentice For Noose, Note
BALTIMORE (AP) ―

The Baltimore Fire Department has suspended a paramedic apprentice who admitted placing a threatening note and a rope shaped like a noose inside a firehouse.

Fire officials say the paramedic, Gary Maynard, is the one who initially reported finding the note and the rope. Fire department spokesman Kevin Cartwright says Maynard confessed to city police that he left the note and the rope.

A statement from Fire Chief William Goodwin says Maynard's scheme was "meant to create the perception that members within our department were acting in a discriminatory and unprofessional manner."

The note was believed to refer to a cheating scandal involving black firefighters. Maynard, who is black, has not yet been charged with any crime.

Two of these seem to be "there is racism here, if only I could prove it" thinking. The thought that if there was racism one could prove it without fabricating evidence doesn't seem to enter into it. At the least, that the fabrication was uncovered indicates the organizations involved take such allegations seriously, investigate the allegations and are competent at the investigative processes.

One just seems a cry for attention, although all three cases could be a cry for attention, when you think of it.

Those who allege racism without proof... what else could that be? The institutions they defamed discovered their fabrications in short order; they don't seem the type to tolerate racist behavior.

It's not as if the allegations do anything to improve the climate at those institutions. With these fabrications, future allegations will be suspect of course. That makes legitimate allegations that much more difficult to prove.

Quite a disservice to the causes these people purport to support.

Attention Whore: Thy name is also Angela Rausch

Ok, it's official. The attention whore trifecta is now in play.

From WBNS-10TV:

Police: Student Fabricated Attack Story
Nov 06 2007 12:18PM

WESTERVILLE, Ohio - An Otterbein College student was facing charges after police said she fabricated a story that she was attacked on Sunday night.

Angela Rausch (pictured, right) told police that a man grabbed her from behind in a parking lot as she was unloading a laundry basket from her car, 10TV News reported.

She also told police that she saw two men laughing near a red SUV in the area right before the attack. Rausch, 18, also told investigators that she was concerned that she was being followed over the past few months.

On Monday night, police said that Rausch confessed that the story was false.

Rausch was charged with falsification. She was scheduled for arraignment on Wednesday.

It was not immediately known why the student made up the story, 10TV News reported.

Stay with 10TV News and 10TV.com for more information.

Reported by Tino Ramos

Attention Whore: Thy name is Sarah Marshak

From the gwhatchet, a student run newspaper at George Washington Univercity:

The University found the student who reported several swastikas on her Mitchell Hall door was the one who drew them.

Using footage from a hidden video camera, the University Police Department linked freshman Sarah Marshak with the vandalism. She will now appear before Student Judicial Services and could face federal and District charges, a spokesperson announced Monday afternoon.

In an interview with The Hatchet Monday evening, Marshak, said she only drew the final three of six swastikas on her door in an attempt to highlight what she characterized as GW's inaction. Only hours earlier, Marshak categorically denied the charges.

"I wasn't looking to create this, sort of, insanity," Marshak said in a phone interview. "I wasn't looking to become a media darling. I was just looking for acknowledgment from University that someone drew a swastika on the door."

Marshak said Tara W. Pereira, director of SJS, informed her she would likely be expelled. Marshak said she did not want to leave GW but probably will.

Tracy Schario, a University spokesperson, said GW stands by its statement that they have a signed confession from Marshak. Schario would not comment on how many swastikas Marshak was responsible for, only saying it was "several of the incidents."

Robert Fishman, the director of Hillel, said during conversations, Marshak always came across as rational.

"This is a definite cry for help on her part," Fishman said in a phone interview Monday. "I can't imagine why anyone would do anything like this. I feel very sad for her. At the same time I am upset that she had to resort to the actions she took."

Another student was caught Saturday night in relation to the drawing of swastikas, the word "niggers" and the text "white power" in New Hall.

The University is still investigating the Potomac House incident.

Schario would not comment whether the camera was placed in Mitchell Hall by UPD or the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who also was investigating the matter.

The same story is here, but with a few less details.