The blogsphere went nuts Wednesday over the story of suburban Dallas teen, 13-year-old Melanie Bowers. According to local reports, Melanie brought her assignment (make a protest sign for or against an issue) to her history class, and all hell broke loose. The sign read, "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration."

While many of us agree with the sentiment expressed, some of her Latino classmates were not impressed. Melanie later described an attack where one of the students jumped on her back and put her in a chokehold.

"I didn't know any of these people. We have brick walls in the middle school and he slammed my face on the bricks."

News of the attack outraged her parents.

"It never should have happened in the first place. The whole assignment was a silly assignment and they should have contacted us immediately after it happened.

 “They handled this wrong, you know, they put a child back in danger. It was a very racially motivated crime."

– J.R. Bowers, Melanie's father

Mr. Bowers said his daughter suffered scratch marks along her neck, face, arms, as well as a swollen jaw. His daughter told him as many as 20 students surrounded her in the hallway, and subjected her to verbal insults. Students destroyed her poster. Of Melanie’s bruises, Bowers said, "She was like a zebra on her arm. She believes they were intentionally trying to hurt her."

Three of the Latino students were issued “in-school” suspensions.  The Athens school district was inundated with angry emails about the attack. This incident triggered anger about our nation’s issues with teen crime, illegal immigration, and school security all in one fell swoop.

While trying to get a handle on the seriousness of the crime, the school authorities reviewed surveillance tapes, as the attack was said to have occurred in a “blind spot” not covered by the cameras. But upon further review, the unspeakable became very clear.

Melanie made the whole “attack” story up.  Continued...