Student smacks girl in bullying video

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - A graphic video disturbed a student at Niagara Falls High School, who brought the video to News 4.

In the video, two girls are sitting quietly at a cafeteria table when one suddenly slaps the other - hard. The video was posted to the suspected bully's Facebook page, where it was found by 18-year-old Daniel Talarico. Daniel had also been the victim of bullying because of his participation in school plays and felt like something should be done.

"When I saw that video it hit a soft spot in me and I don't want anybody else to go through what I went through," he said.

Daniel tried to tell the school about the incident and got no response. He then brought the video to administrators, but say nothing appeared to have been done.

"Their reassurance is always like "kids are cruel," "keep your chin up," "it will be okay," but I think they should say a lot more than that," Daniel said. "I think that's just a cheap answer, in all honesty."

He added, "A school should feel like a safe and healthy environment to go to. You shouldn't be afraid to go to school. You shouldn't be worried about being bullied. And I think for sure shouldn't be worried about being smacked across the face in lunch."

News 4 made several attempts to contact both the victim and the apparent attacker in the video, but never heard back from either. We went to the school, but administrators would only give a prepared statement.

Niagara Falls High School House Administrator Joe Colburn says the appropriate disciplinary steps were taken. However, he would not say what those steps were or if the student involved was back in school.

"We are aware of an event that took place here in the building. It really was an event of bullying," Colburn said. "We were made aware of it by teachers, but we were also made aware of it by a number of our students who witnessed it and realized it was the wrong thing."

"That makes me feel really good that some of my peers aren't tolerant of it as well," Daniel said.