Kingsburg Boy Cleared of Assault Charges, Still Banned from School

FRESNO, Calif. Jeremiah Hernandez claimed self-defense after gay slurs and a physical attack on the school bus. The boy was a special Ed 7th grader at Rafer Johnson Middle School. He suffers from a learning disability called auditory processing disorder, but he took normal classes, until he decided he'd taken too much from an 8th grader.

Hernandez is a shy, soft-spoken 12-year-old who loved hanging out with his friends. But when one of his friends turned into an enemy, things went bad fast and he says he became the target of gay slurs.

"She knows it bothers you?" I asked.

"Yeah, she knows it bothers me and she does it on purpose," Hernandez replied.

Jeremiah says the older and bigger girl's verbal assault continued for several days and escalated to a physical attack after a bus ride home and that's when he protected himself with a 2 1/2 inch pair of scissors.

"She was coming at me with her fist and she cut herself with her scissors because I had my hand up," he said.

"With the scissors in your hand?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "I was scared she was going to hit me hard."

The girl suffered a cut to her stomach and needed two stitches. Kingsburg Police arrested Jeremiah and prosecutors charged him with assault with a deadly weapon. He spent a night in juvenile hall.

"Terrible," he said. "It's not nice in there. Just depressing."

A couple months later, the Kingsburg school board voted to expel him without hearing from the older girl. He's been attending a continuation school ever since. The girl was suspended three days for sexual harassment.

Thursday, a judge agreed it was an act of self-defense and dismissed the charges against him. His attorney, Chuck Magill, never even had to present a defense.

"This is clearly a case of being bullied and harassed by her and it's been proven in court," said Jeremiah's sister and guardian, Angela Rodriguez.

But the school district still won't let him back, at least until next year. Hernandez feels he's already better equipped to handle a bully when he goes back.

"All I have to do is just ignore it," he said. "Or I can tell someone about it."

Magill is trying to get judge to force the district to let Jeremiah back into his old school.

We tried to reach Kingsburg school offices and the superintendent, but they're on spring break and didn't return our messages.

We also couldn't reach the girl involved in the altercation.