**Edited**
One of the things I found interesting about this article and the news surrounding it is that is has not really focused much on the hate crime aspect of this incident. There is a lot of emphasis on the lack of the bus driver and other witnesses involvement — but this girl was targeted because she looked "Chinese" and that was the impetus for the assault.
Maybe others have read accounts that discuss the racial implications of this attack, but so far I have not. And I don’t want to be melodramatic, but it is just another reminder that Asian Americans are also subject to race crimes.
Harlow's Monkey 
This happened not too far from me. It’s upsetting.
THAT IS HORRIBLE.
And where was the bus driver? Sheesh.
that’s a very good and important point to be highlighted jr. we as asians are often perceived by the white media to be outside the realm of “racial violence” – it doesn’t happen to us. what racially tinged slurs to an african american, to a hispanic, to even a muslim would be immediately condoned as “racist”, are often modified by lighter and less serious terms, “teased”, “made fun of”, “derogatory” (at most), when projected towards asians.
for asian americans, we have fallen on a double edged sword. in white media we have been forced into a kind of hara-kiri – as we are exalted as brainiacs, successfully “assimilated” members of american society; yet we are resigned to having little voice in the majority culture, and even less in the dialogue within america’s racial subculture.
we have fallen prey to being the pin-up poster boys/girls for white america; and paradoxically marginalized, for what is perceived to be a racist free existence by the minority.
i’m not surprised by the media coverage – short, sweet, and on to cover something that is more contrasting. media waits for the juicy black/white story – not one that is muddled by the less than eye catching faint yellow of asian america.
On the bus driver’s part it appears that anti-Catholicism also had something to do with it: “Go talk to a priest”.
Why didn’t other people, beside the 30-yr-old man who finally intervened, help this girl?!
John, wow, so well put. Asians are often ignored when hate crimes are addressed. The ‘model minority’ label is so double-edged.
JR, you were astute when observing the lack of attn to that fact in the article.
It’s also distressing to read that it was a black-on-asian attack. Even after the LA riots, I’m not sure if America wants to address this hostility.
Catholic school kids attack. Wow, why does that sound like something that should be published in the Onion. Unfortunately, this was all too real and indicative of the hate that seems to flow in our country, especially during times of war against a country of peoples who “look” and talk different.
These were not Catholic school kids. She was on a city bus, in her Catholic school uniform.