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Mom heard son being attacked
She was on the phone with the teen when two boys used anti-gay slurs and beat him.
By MICHAEL A. MOHAMMED
Published June 20, 2007
TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Kathy Thyben was on the phone to her son when she heard the voices of his attackers.
She said they used anti-gay slurs and made vulgar comments to the four girls Eric Thyben had been sitting with on a bench along the Upper Tampa Bay Trail on Thursday night.
"If I pushed you off this bench, what would you do?, " one boy asked.
"Nothing, " Eric replied.
Seconds later, her 15-year-old son shouted to his mother that a pair of bigger boys were hitting him in the face.
"All I hear is 'Hey, stop hitting me, man!"
One slapped the phone out of his hand. Eric's sister Julie, 13, picked it up.
"My daughter is screaming, 'Mom, they're beating him, they're beating him, '" Kathy Thyben said. "I go flying out the door, barefoot in pajamas."
Frantic, she searched along the dark trail behind her house.
When she found them, she saw blood on Eric's face. His eye had turned red and started to swell.
Eric Thyben said he didn't know the three boys who walked up and started spitting anti-gay epithets as he hung out along the trail with Julie, her 12-year-old friend, and two teenage female friends.
Eric said that after he told them he wouldn't fight back, one boy started punching him in the face while the other hit him in the back of the head. The third, Eric said, did not participate in the beating.
He said he stayed where he was, letting them hit him because he didn't want them to hurt the girls.
"The guys were pretty big and they tried to hurt my sister, because she was cussing and screaming at them, " Eric said.
Though the boys ran away when Kathy Thyben arrived, Julie and her friend said they recognized one of them as a fellow student at Davidson Middle School.
Kathy Thyben said they found the two attackers in the school yearbook, and she called sheriff's deputies.
Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said the two boys, whom the Times is not naming because of their age, have been arrested and charged with third-degree felony battery. The attack is being treated as a hate crime.
[Last modified June 20, 2007, 01:40:33]
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by DYLAN
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06/21/07 12:31 AM
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GREAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW TO PUT THERE
FOOT DOWN AND LET MINORS AS WELL AS ADULTS THAT SOMETHINGS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED WE ALL SHOULD JUST GET ALONG FREEDOM IS YOUR RIGHT TO LIVE,LOVE AND ACT AS YOU SEE FIT GOOD FOR YOU MOM
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by Pam
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06/20/07 08:27 PM
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Big man Jack, big man.... Pleeez
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by Jack
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06/20/07 05:38 PM
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Hope the courts throw the book at these punks but I doubt it. Bullies have probably been here as long as man has wandered the earth. Too bad I didn't witness the attack....would have been a whole different outcome. I'd be writing this from jail.
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by mike
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06/20/07 03:10 PM
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They were old enough to commit a felony, they're old enough to have their names in the paper. Shame the parents and let everyone know what pathetic cowards their kids are. I hope they get paid back in juvie.
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by Terri
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06/20/07 03:00 PM
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These bullies need severe punishment before they grow up to be murders...hang in Eric not everyone is hateful...hats off to you for protecting the girls..now who is the "real" man here.....
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by Paul
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06/20/07 02:16 PM
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So the victims name can be published but not the attackers. Semms to me this law protecting the "accused" is a bit strange. If nothing else conceal the victims name and print the names of the attackers after they have been convicted.
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by Dan
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06/20/07 01:16 PM
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These thugs should be identified and their mothers forcibly spayed so they don't breed anymore thugs. If you're not smart enough to raise your kids right - don't have any.
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by Nancy
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06/20/07 12:38 PM
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In this day and age, the parents can't control all situations at all times. This is the real world. Write back when you've experienced raising teens! I've done a ggod job, if my did breaks the law...I will do my part by NOT bailing them out of it!!
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by Nancy
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06/20/07 12:35 PM
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Jason,you obviously don't have children, or if you do,they're not teenagers yet. I consider myself to have been, and still am a very good parent who has taught my children what is right, wrong, and unacceptable. If they get in trouble, it is them who
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by Carol
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06/20/07 09:43 AM
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You said it Deborah! But I wish parents/adults like us weren't the minority.
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by RON
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06/20/07 09:33 AM
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Why not publish the parents names? This could encourage discussion by other parents about tolerance and prevent similar outrageous behavior. I am sure they would not like their name associated with such stupidity. Bravo to the brave victim.
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by jason
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06/20/07 09:07 AM
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Another violent juvenile crime. Time to start holding parents responsible for actions of their children.
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by Dennis
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06/20/07 09:03 AM
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Another sad example of ignorant intolerance being turned into horrible actions. Whether the victim is gay or not, no one should be attacked!
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by Deborah
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06/20/07 08:20 AM
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Kids listen to all of the comments made by us parents, and therefore we are indirectly responsible. We should all be mindful of the pain those comments cause. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Is that so difficult to live and teach?
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