Both sides react to teen-beating video

LAKELAND - You can hear the girls yelling and threatening the 16-year-old as the punches are thrown. Victoria Lindsay endured several beatings, girls hitting her over and over again in the head, knocking her unconscious, then attacking again as she comes to.

"She just didn't deserve to be beat down like a dog," said Patrick Lindsay, the victim's father.

"When you see your daughter, who's not striking back to defend herself, and someone keeps coming at you like that -- it's just, it's a horrible thing," added Talisa Lindsay, the victim's mother.

Deputies say the suspects attacked the teenager in retaliation for comments posted on her MySpace page, then threatened to post video of it on the internet.

But her parents believe she was set up, after someone hacked into her MySpace account.

"For whatever reason, this MySpace, this YouTube, it's gone too far. And what it's doing to our kids, it's just too much," Talisa Lindsay continued.

Eight teenagers are now charged with third-degree felonies for battery and false imprisonment. Stephen Schumaker, 18, was among those arrested.

"I don't see how I'm getting charged as a look out and this and that. It's just, I don't see why I'm even in this situation, you know," he told FOX 13.

Deputies say he was a lookout during the beating, but Schumaker denies it.

"That's messed up, to videotape it and then go and say we beat this girl up, hahahaha. It's a bunch of little girl stuff, really," he added.

But that's not the way the victim's parents see it. Their daughter, who was an honor roll student and a cheerleader, now has scars that won't heal easily.

"She's having nightmares over it. She's emotionally upset still about it because there's a lot of talk," Talisa Lindsay said.

"She's scared. Scared to go back to school, scared to go out in public because she's afraid of repercussions that may happen," Patrick Lindsay added.