#12-year-old Kansas boy accused of hitting little girl with pipe, yelling racial slurs

A 12-year-old Kansas boy is facing criminal charges for allegedly beating an 11-year-old girl in the face with a metal pipe in what her family says was a racially-motivated attack.

The boy, who wasn’t named because of his age, yelled racial slurs at Nevaeh Thomas as she was playing outside in Kansas City on Friday, her mom told WDAF-TV.

Nevaeh responded with “my black is beautiful” — which is when the boy allegedly bashed her face with a pipe, said her mom, who wasn’t named in the report.

The girl was left bruised, with a gash on her cheek, and was still recovering from the attack on Monday, the outlet reported.

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said the boy was charged with aggravated battery and placed on house arrest. The next step is to get to the bottom of the child’s behavior and correct it, said Howe.

“Probably one of the chief things that the court wants to do is get an evaluation to determine what are the underlying factors that are causing this behavior,” Howe said.

The DA added that he’s seen an uptick in kids acting out during the coronavirus pandemic.

“One of the things that we have seen through this whole shut down and COVID-19 is kids have been acting out. Luckily, most of the behavior is pretty minor behavior,” Howe said.

An attorney representing the girl’s family said there’s no doubt the attack was motivated by hate and that the court should act accordingly.

“That’s not for us to decide his intention behind it. All we know is that he used racial slurs, he hit this little girl,” LaRonna Lassiter-Saunders said.

“I do want to say to the public and America in general…we’ve done a lot of talking. Now it’s time to act.”

The lawyer added: “Change yourself, hold your family, your neighbors, your friends accountable.”