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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolina has been abuzz – and aghast – over recently leaked video footage showing a high school football player being violently assaulted by three of his teammates.
The attack occurred at approximately 10:30 p.m. EDT on July 7, 2025 at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C. and involved football players from D.W. Daniel High School. Ironically, it transpired during a Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) summer camp.
No charges have been disclosed in connection with this assault – nor has any formal discipline of the players been announced by the Pickens County School District (PCSD). According to our sources, the players are all back at football practice and have been told they will miss only one game of the upcoming season. All we know from police reports is the victim in the attack – who received medical attention for his injuries – was alleged to have sent a racially insensitive image in a group chat prior to the assault.
Neither cops nor prosecutors are sharing any information about the case, because everyone involved is a juvenile… and the institutions responsible for the students seemed more keen to sweep the scandal under the rug than insist on accountability for those involved.
Our Andy Fancher has covered this story extensively (here and here) from a straight news perspective, but as the founding editor of this media outlet I felt it was important to weigh in on the matter editorially.
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As a smart-mouthed kid who grew up in the era before smart phones, I am well aware that ass kickings are often warranted. I’ve received several in my life – and the handful that weren’t richly deserved were vastly outnumbered by the ones I should’ve gotten but somehow managed to avoid (which reminds me, I probably owe S.C. Senate finance chairman Harvey Peeler a free shot following a face-off at the former Meritage restaurant in downtown Columbia in early 2003).
I also spent some time as a bouncer at Group Therapy in Columbia’s Five Points district, so I know a little bit about the proper methodology for correcting bad behavior. There’s a right way and a wrong way to throw fists – to effectively deter the individual you are beating down without inflicting serious or lasting damage to their person.
I am also aware (at least I am now) that the right answer in all of these situations is simple: not to initiate violence against a fellow human being. Aside from self-defense – or defending others who cannot defend themselves – there really is no situation in which you ought to commence fisticuffs. Well, unless it’s a prize fight like the one I was in two decades ago against Joel Sawyer, my successor as gubernatorial press secretary.
Who won that three-round brawl? Cigarettes.
My point is before you undertake the administration of a “lesson” to another – think about the lessons you need to learn. And think about the consequences of your own actions.
“They deserved it?”
“They had it coming?”
We all have it coming, people. Let him who is without sin cast the first haymaker…
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RELATED | ATTORNEYS RELEASE NEW VIDEO
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Whatever motivated the assailants in this case, though – they committed a crime. Not only that, their crime was captured on video. Indeed, several of the clips circulating of the assault appear to have originated from the assailants themselves. In other words, they broke the law – and then told on themselves. “Upon further review,” that makes them as stupendously stupid as they are violently vengeful.
Does it matter the attackers are black and their victim is white? Not really… not to me, anyway. There’s certainly ample discussion transpiring as to how this incident might have been handled had the races been reversed, though.
Whatever the names, ages or races of our dramatis personae, the evidence in this case is what it is. And that… as they say… “is that.” It is now time – past time, actually – for those who committed this crime to face the consequences of their actions.
This isn’t A Time To Kill, it’s A Time To Charge. Sooner rather than later, preferably… unless we want public faith in the integrity of our state’s justice system to deteriorate further (assuming that’s even possible).
S.C. Eight Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo – whose office has jurisdiction over this matter – has a reputation as a prosecutor who does not brook violence. Stumbo is also a newly minted candidate for attorney general of South Carolina – a state which has a serious (and escalating) problem with violent crime.
While Stumbo is legally prohibited from discussing the case given the minor status of the offenders, we fully expect his office to go hard in the paint as it relates to any charges that may be filed.
Stumbo must drop the hammer… and charge the individuals involved in this assault to the fullest extent of the law. Not only that, he should charge each one of them as adults and release their names to the public.
There’s either accountability for violent crime in South Carolina or there’s not. And prosecutorial decisions like this one determine whether there is… or isn’t.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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9 comments
Right On!
Will, making this all about him.
Hey Will, are you all about second chances for these guys like you are with Larry The Murderer?
Teen age boys do not yet have fully developed frontal lopes. They can behave irrationally. They say things that should not be said. They do things that cannot be undone. The adults in charge of the school football program need to take charge of their teen age boys. All of them! It is difficult for me to believe that other team members were not complicit in this situation by their silence and their failure to not seek immediate help from the in charge adults.
Shut down the entire football program at this school for a year. This will speak volumes to the students at this school and other schools that thug behavior is not tolerated EVER in any situation.
I totally agree, forfeit every game for the season and maybe all athletic departments will get the message !
It is totally fine for you, Will, not to get the book thrown at you. But you don’t want these kids to get any mercy. That is your point?
Mercy, like they showed the kid who took the beating?
Mercy? How about Justice? You are the reason incidents like this happen “Joshua Kendrick”. Hope you get the same Justice you ask for others.
No, mercy like Will has gotten in his life when he was younger. That is what I meant.
I believe this type of attack is called “lynching”. A mob of 3 or more attacking and injuring a single person. Hate crime, victim is white, attackers were black. Kidnapping, the attackers did not allow the victim to leave. Assault and battery of high and aggravated nature, attacks were continued after victim was in a vulnerable state.
Victim’s football career is over for the year. How will the school and coaches allow the attackers to continue their football career this year? Three attackers should be dismissed from the team for the season, those in the room filming and watching in the room and refused to step in to stop the attack should have a minimum of a three game suspension to include practices and team meetings.
But who am I kidding, the coach and school board will do absolutely nothing to the attackers. Rumor is the coach is going to give each of the three a one game suspension, likely against some team that they’d beat by 70 anyway.