“They saw that I was handicapped, and they thought they were better than me.”

— Josh Graves, 15, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and was beaten by a group of boys on his way home from the library

For a while, Josh Graves was hoping his attackers would simply kill him.

Graves, a West Junior High School student who has limited use of the right side of his body because of cerebral palsy, told the Journal-World a gang of five or six boys approached him as he walked through a Lawrence park, asked him if he was “retarded,” then began punching and kicking him.

“I think they’re prejudiced,” said Graves, who also has epilepsy. “They saw that I was handicapped, and they thought they were better than me.”

The beating allegedly happened about 7 p.m. Wednesday at Clinton Park, 500 Ill. It left the teen with a black eye and aggravated his other physical problems — triggering seizures, vomiting and migraine headaches, he and his mother said.

“I do not want these boys to get away with this,” said his mother, Teri Snell.

Police have identified six suspects: one whose age is unknown, and five between the ages of 11 and 15, said Sgt. Mike Pattrick, a spokesman for the Lawrence Police Department.

Graves, 15, had convinced his mother to drop him off downtown that day so he could go to the public library and make copies of two fliers. One advertised his summer yard work service; another advertised his Sony PlayStation 2, which he’s selling because the flashing lights in some of the games give him seizures.

Josh Graves, 15, was jumped by a group of five or six boys as he was walking home Wednesday through Clinton Park, 901 W. Fifth St. On Tuesday Josh, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, stood on the bridge where he was attacked by the gang who asked him if he was retarded before punching and kicking him.

“I was so apprehensive about letting him walk home, but he said, ‘Mom, I’m 15 years old. You’ve got to let me grow up sometime,'” Snell said. “That was my biggest fear — that something like this would happen.”

Graves was in a good mood because it was the last day of school. He was making up songs and humming to himself as he cut north through the park toward his home in the 200 block of Alabama Street.

As he crossed a bridge, he saw a group of boys he did not know running toward him. They confronted him on the bridge and asked him if he was “retarded,” Graves said.

“I’m used to it. Because my hand’s curled up, people ask me that. That doesn’t make me mad,” he said.

He told them he wasn’t. They asked if he was at least partly “retarded,” he said, then one of the boys stepped forward and punched him in his left eye, which is legally blind.

A second punch landed on the left side of his head, which is vulnerable because his left brain is damaged from strokes early in his life.

“I was hoping they would just kill me because it was really painful,” Graves said.

He fell to the ground. The boys kicked him in the stomach and ran off, he said.

¢ 6News video: Disabled teenager attacked in Lawrence park

Graves said he stumbled up a hill and found a group of young men. They called police.

A week later, Snell is not letting her son leave the house alone. He’s mad about that, mad that he didn’t get a chance to defend himself, and worried that the next time someone pushes or teases him, he’ll do something violent.

“I’ve gotten tired of it,” he said. “I’m only human.”