Beaten teen to head home for rehab

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) -- A South Florida teenager will soon take another step toward recovery after she was brutally beaten at school.

Josie Lou Ratley, 15, will be released from a rehabilitation center sometime in the next two weeks. She will then continue her rehab at home, but, according to her mother, the path to recovery is a long way away. "She is recovering very slowly," said Hilda Gotay Ratley, wiping away tears at a news conference Tuesday. "She's trying, with a smile of course, we try to teach her how to read, how to know colors, how to dress herself."

Ratley received weeks of treatment at an undisclosed rehabilitation center since she was released from the hospital on April 27. The teen also had to relearn how to talk, eat and just move her arms.

According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, 15-year-old Wayne Treacy stomped and kicked at Ratley's head at Deerfield Beach Middle School in March. Treacy currently sits in jail, charged with attempted premeditated murder, after sending text messages to friends detailing his plans to "snap her neck."

According to investigators, Ratley had allegedly enraged Treacy through text messages of her own that referred to Treacy's deceased older brother in a derogatory manner. Treacy, a former student at Deerfield Beach High School student tracked Ratley down at her middle school and beat her unconscious until a teacher pried him away.

Ratley needed to be airlifted to the hospital where she was placed in a medically induced coma and had several surgeries to reduce the swelling in her brain.

Gotay, with her lawyer at her side Tuesday morning, spoke at Gallery 101 on North Andrews Avenue, and showed a new picture of her daughter that hided a large scar on her head from her surgeries. "What I did is I took her hair, and put it over the side because she is completely bald, of course."

Her mother says her daughter needs a lot of help in her continued rehab at home. Also attending the conference was Jowharah Sanders, founding president and chairman of the National Voices for Equality Education & Enlightenment. His organization, founded in Fort Lauderdale to combat bullying at schools, has stepped up to try and help out Ratley and her family.

NVEEE is organizing drop off points for donations that will help Ratley in her at-home rehab, as she did not have any health insurance when Treacy nearly beat her to death. Concerned citizens can contact them through the link above. One of the drop off points is Gallery 101, where the news conference took place.

(Copyright 2010 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)