Immigrant boy charged for hitting bully

KESWICK, Ontario, April 30 (UPI) -- A small Canadian town in southern Ontario is divided over charges against an Asian immigrant youth who responded to a bully's punch with one of his own.

The confrontation occurred April 21 in Keswick, 40 miles north of Toronto, between two 15-year-old boys during a game in the high school gymnasium. Neither boy can be identified, The Globe and Mail said.

One student who immigrated to Canada from South Korea in 2004 told police a white student shoved him, called him an "(expletive) Chinese" and hit him in the mouth. The Korean youth had been trained in martial arts by his father, a former member of South Korea's national martial arts team. The youth told police he had been trained to only hit back with his left hand and, with one punch, broke the other youth's nose, the Globe reported.

The boy was charged with assault causing bodily harm, suspended from school and may face expulsion. However, police reopened the case as a possible hate-crime after 400 mostly white students walked out of the high school Monday in protest of how the Korean youth was treated, The Globe and Mail said.

York Regional Police said further charges against others were possible.