Wednesday started much like any other school day, as Casey waved bye to his dad at 7:15 a.m. and stepped onto the No. 16 bus at the Pierce Transit Center at Tacoma Community College.
He couldn’t have known he would end up in the hospital, with a footprint on his face and sleepless terror in his mind.
The daily bus ride is part of Casey’s plan to be more independent. He’s 13, an eighth-grader at Mason Middle School, and has been left medically fragile by neurofibromatosis.
About twice a year, he endures operations in which doctors remove tumors that attack his nerves and have weakened his spine. Twice a year he flies to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to volunteer for tests and procedures he hopes will lead researchers to a cure.
But he was doing fine on Wednesday, feeling well, ready to enjoy the ride to school.
The driver was on a break, but Casey took his usual seat by the front door.
“I usually always sit up there, next to the driver,” he said Thursday, from the sofa of his dad’s Tacoma home. “There’s always trouble in the back, like foul language.”
Casey’s good about avoiding trouble. Given the weakness of his spine, a shove could paralyze him.
He figured there were a dozen people on the bus. One was a woman. The rest were students who usually get off at Wilson High School a few minutes before he gets to Mason.
He’d been sitting alone for about five minutes when two teen boys stepped into the bus.
“They laughed at me for no reason,” Casey said. “Then they got off.”
Right after that, two more teen boys got on.
“One of them socked me in the face,” Casey said. “I tried to take cover under the seat. Then he was stomping and kicking me. The people in the back of the bus, the high school kids, were laughing.”
This, he thinks, went on for five minutes. The timing could be shaky. He was being assaulted, not checking his watch.
It was the woman who stopped it. She yelled at the attackers that she was calling the police, and they’d better run.
Being the kind of tough, fearless guys who beat up frail 13-year-olds, they did.
The woman and one student came forward to help, as did a female Junior ROTC cadet who got to the bus after the attack. Casey is grateful for what they did when he was so scared and hurt.
“I was bleeding out of my nose and mouth,” he said. “And I have a black eye.”
He was crying when the bus driver returned and called the police. Casey heard the driver remark, “This is going to take a while.”
The students in the back, the ones who had been laughing at Casey’s beating, crowded out the center door and left. One forgot a backpack.
They couldn’t muster a simple kindness. They couldn’t be bothered to leave contact information or give statements to the police, who arrived in minutes.
Leaving a crime scene is bad on its own. But instead of protecting a frail middle schooler, they chose to protect the guys who socked and stomped him.
Their failure to cooperate with police is helping those thugs remain out and about with the rest of us.
As deplorable as that witness behavior was, they can begin to set things right. They can step forward with information on the crime.
“We need the public’s help in getting more witnesses,” said Tacoma police detective Ken Viehmann. “If they were on the bus or know someone who was on that bus, we want to hear from them.”
Those Wilson students should also know what happened to the little boy whose assault so amused them.
Casey’s parents took him to his doctors at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
“They gave him two doses of morphine, one of Ativan and liquid ibuprofen,” said Casey’s mom, Kimberly Sternitzky. After all that, they asked him what his pain was on a scale of 1 to 10. He said it was an 8.
She said her boy has known so much pain in his life, he does not exaggerate it when he describes it to his doctors.
For hours that day, Casey lay taped to a backboard to stabilize his spine. Sternitzky tried to get him to sleep.
“He’d say, ‘Mom, I can’t close my eyes. When I do, I see it over and over,’” said Sternitzky, who did not want Casey’s last name used for fear of retaliation.
Casey’s black eye has developed into more of a footprint on his cheek and forehead. His mouth and eyes are sore. His back, legs and arm are bruised. He has to wear a neck brace full time, even in the shower, for the next few weeks. He can’t sleep.
That is not the worst thing, he said.
The worst is the fear that the bad guys will come after him again. And that no one will help.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
Do you have information?
Were you or someone you know a passenger on the No. 16 bus at the Tacoma Community College Pierce Transit center at 7:15 a.m. Wednesday?
Tacoma police are looking for two young men who assaulted a medically fragile middle school student.
If you have any information, please call detective Mike Hardeman at 253-591-5807. If you would like to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 253-591-5959.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.