Apr 20, 2006 11:48 am US/Eastern

Bush To Meet Parents Of Boot Camp Beating Victim

Peaceful Student Protest Continues Outside Governor's Office

(CBS4 News) TALLAHASSEE Governor Jeb Bush plans to meet with the parents of Martin Lee Anderson, the 14-year-old boy who died a day after he was beaten at a Panama City boot camp.

Thursday afternoon’s meeting comes a day after college students began a peaceful sit-in outside the governor's office.

About 30 college students who spent the night in protest say they're staying put – until that meeting between Governor Bush and Anderson’s parents takes place

Videotape from the boot camp shows the altercation with guards on Jan. 5. Anderson died the next day in a hospital. A medical examiner said he died from complications of a blood disorder, but his family disputes that. Bush has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate and a second autopsy is being done.

"I'm pretty tired, but I know we got a long day ahead of us, and when you're working on issues like this ... physically the things that are going on almost stop mattering," said Gabriel Pedras, a Florida State University student who helped organize the peaceful protest.

The group also said they would stay until officials met their demands, including the arrest of guards who were videotaped at the camp. They also want Bush to revoke the license of the medical examiner who performed the first autopsy, order the findings of the second autopsy released and apologize to the boy's family.

Before meeting with some of the students Wednesday, Bush cautioned it would be premature to release findings before the entire investigation was complete. Bush has appointed Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober as a special prosecutor.

"No one can feel good about a death like this, but there's an ongoing investigation," Bush said.

Bush returned from a weeklong trip to the Middle East to find the group in the foyer of his office. The students called their conversation with Bush "political" and weren't satisfied.

Shortly after, as staff routinely closed the doors to Bush's office for the evening, students linked arms and, chanting, moved to a hallway just outside. They spent the night calling campus organizations from cell phones and studying for upcoming tests on laptops.

They hoped more of their peers would join them Thursday morning, when they woke at 6:30 a.m. to re-tuck shirts, re-knot ties and lace up their dress shoes. They used deodorant and anti-bacterial wipes that some legislators -- who spent most of Wednesday night with them -- had brought.

The students, from Florida State University, Florida A&M University and Tallahassee Community College, said they were planning a protest Friday with events at the three schools that will end at the Capitol. Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the Anderson family, said he's been talking with students but did not help organize the protest.

In the first autopsy, Dr. Charles Siebert ruled the boy died of complications from sickle cell trait, a usually benign blood disorder. He said his findings were based on reliable science, not emotion. Ober witnessed the second autopsy, and his office said Anderson didn't die of sickle cell, but details haven't been released.

Anderson's family and some lawmakers have expressed their outrage at Siebert's ruling. They say the altercation with guards killed him.

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