Lynn beating suspects suspended

LYNN – Both the Lynn School Department and East Lynn Pop Warner came to decisions Friday in the case of defendants charged in the July beating of a Guatemalan man.And in both cases, the verdict was indefinite suspension.Four teenagers, including an 11 year old, were indefinitely suspended from public schools Friday morning by middle school principals.”They are not allowed to return Sept. 9,” said School Attendance and Discipline Specialist Richard Iarrobino Friday.Letters suspending the four were delivered in hand to their homes and by mail. One of the boys attends Breed; another attends Pickering and two attend Marshall. A fifth boy charged in the beating is slated to start school at St. Mary’s Junior High/High School. Head of School Raymond Bastarache declined to discuss the boy’s status Thursday. A sixth defendant, who is 14, is still in state Youth Services custody.Later Friday, East Lynn Pop Warner president Duke Wilson announced that his organization – citing rules in the Pop Warner Little Scholars rules and regulations and Pop Warner Code of Conduct – suspended four of the suspects involved in the youth football organization.Until Friday, neither Wilson nor the organization had commented on reports that the boys were being allowed to practice while wearing their ankle bracelet monitors.”This incident is disheartening and goes against everything East Lynn Pop Warner stands for,” Wilson said, reading from a prepared statement.The beating occurred on July 22 and the teens were arrested and appeared in Juvenile Court during the following week. The boys, all Lynn residents, pleaded not delinquent to charges of armed assault to murder, assault to maim, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and civil rights order violations resulting in injury.With regards to the suspension, the boys’ parents have the right of appeal to School Superintendent Catherine Latham within five calendar days of the date of suspension. Under state law, Latham may hold hearings on the principals’ decisions. She can overturn or alter the decisions or recommend alternate educational programs for the four.The six suspects were charged by police with the severe beating of Damian Merida as he slept in undergrowth bordering Robert McManus Field.Merida was hospitalized with serious head trauma and other extensive injuries for nearly a month in Massachusetts General Hospital before being moved to Tewksbury State Hospital for rehabilitation treatment.Police, in a statement released after the arrests, said the boys targeted Merida for the beating because of his ethnicity. They also said they were investigating an assault on another Guatemalan and “the possibility that the attack was not the first perpetrated by these youth.”The five middle school age boys were released from state custody and ordered to wear electronic monitoring bracelets.The principals’ decisions to suspend them is based on a state law cited in the letters sent to the students. The law applies to students charged with felonies and allows principals to determine if a “student’s continued presence in school would have a substantial detrimental effect on the general welfare of the school.”Wilson said ELPW suspended the four players in its organization in accordance with Rule s21 of the Pop Warner Code of Conduct, “which states that players must refrain from engaging in any actions which reflect negatively or cause embarrassment to the Pop Warner program.”Pop Warner emphasizes building character and integrity, while emphasizing the importance of academics,” Wilson said.He also said that the suspensions are in place “until completion of the pending legal matter in which all four of the participants are involved in. At that time, the participants’ standing in Pop Warner will be re-evaluated by the association and league personnel.”He also said the league would make no further comments until the legal issue has been resolved.Item sports editor Steve Krause also contributed to this report.