Yesterday, Brooklyn authorities decided to charge the suspect in the Lafayette High School student assault with a hate crime after a long interview with the victim. The victim, a 12th-grader Chinese immigrant, Siukwo Cheng, was accompanied by State Assemblyman William Colton and volunteers from the Brooklyn United Chinese Association; they were pleased with the charge.

The suspect’s student identification identifies him as a 15-year-old African American student at Lafayette. He was arrested last Friday, after Cheng recognized him on campus and called the police. His assailants cursed Chinese people while attacking Cheng. He said that at least six students attacked him near the school gates last month. This suspect is the only one arrested so far.

Cheng’s attack is only one of several serious recent attacks against Chinese immigrant students at Lafayette High School. Assemblyman Colton, who was a teacher for 11 years before becoming an elected official, has paid close attention to this problem at the school. He visited Cheng several times since learning of the incident from the media. He also accompanied Cheng, whose parents are still in Hong Kong, to the court yesterday to meet the prosecutor.

“Although there has been rumor that the suspect’s student ID is false and his real age and identity are under investigation, I think I need to come to the court with Siukwo to make sure that the prosecutor won’t give up the charge because of the suspect’s age,” said Colton. “Now it seems everybody has realized how serious this incident is.”

Colton also criticized the school administration for neglecting this incident. Since this and other similar attacks were reported, the school has barely done anything to prevent such incidents from happening again.

“The NYPD 62nd Precinct set up a mobile commander center outside of the campus last week. This sent a message to the students that no assault is allowed on campus,” said Colton. “But this message should be sent to the students by the school, not by the police.” Colton was one of the sponsors of state legislation passed in 2001 aimed at preventing school violence. He admitted that the enforcement of the legislation has not been satisfactory. The legislation requires that each school set up an assault report system, and that in the event of an assault, a school administrator file a report with the local police precinct. Few schools really follow the requirements strictly. Colton will meet with the Lafayette High School principal in the next few days. “Maybe Lafayette High School will be the beginning of making the enforcement of the legislation more strict,” said Colton.