Attorneys for 10 teenagers on Wednesday denied allegations their clients participated in what prosecutors contend was a gang-based attack on a 13-year-old student last month during a school bus ride home.
Chatham County Juvenile Court Judge Lisa Goldwire Colbert ordered all but one to remain in detention pending the beginning of a juvenile trial beginning March 18.
She ordered one of the group released on house arrest pending the same hearing.
In all, there are 13 charges, including several designated felony counts reserved for the most serious juvenile offenders.
Assistant District Attorney Kim Rowden contends the conduct on the bus was “associated with a criminal street gang.”
Meanwhile, four other juveniles on Wednesday were ordered detained in the same case by Juvenile Judge LeRoy Burke III, pending arraignments on March 12.
With the pending detention hearing of another juvenile Thursday, all 17 suspects have appeared in Juvenile Court.
Another, a 17-year-old, also is charged but will be handled as an adult.
The Savannah Morning News does not identify juvenile offenders until they are found guilty by a judge of a designated-felony charge.
The incident occurred on school bus 626 carrying students home from the Ombudsman Alternative Learning Program site on Brampton Road in Garden City on Feb. 21.
According to school district police officer Brenda Johnson, a group of students exhibiting gang signs and related behavior beat a 13-year-old female student, including ripping a braid from her head, kicking and beating her and causing a four-inch bald spot in the victim’s head.
The events were captured on a videotape on the bus and played in evidence before Colbert on Friday.
Only three students on the bus were not charged.
At the end of the video, students are seen jumping through windows and out the front and back doors to flee.