Michael Brewer, Florida Teen Set on Fire, Is Going Back to Classes

(April 20) -- After months of painful physical therapy and four skin grafts, the 15-year-old Florida boy burned over 60 percent of his body is well enough to return to school. But Michael Brewer Jr. won't be walking the same halls as the former classmates accused of dousing him in rubbing alcohol and setting him on fire at his apartment complex in October.

Brewer will begin classes at a new Florida school Wednesday. He transferred out of Deerfield Beach Middle School, the same school where 15-year-old Josie Ratley was allegedly beaten and kicked repeatedly in the head by a classmate, Wayne Treacy, who was upset over a text message.

Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, both 15, and Jesus Mendez, 16, have been charged as adults with attempted murder in Brewer's case.

"This school is terrible. I don't know why I went to this school," Brewer told Meredith Vieira on "Tuesday" this morning, adding that he is looking forward to a fresh start at a new school.

"It's exciting," he said. "I kind of miss school ... friends and stuff."

Brewer faces more surgeries, but he told Vieira he feels "great" -- six months after he was attacked by a group of five classmates who police said were angry because Brewer owed them money for a video game. The teen who doctors feared may not survive the burning is now skateboarding, bike-riding and even playing basketball and baseball.

"If I fall, I just get back up and try it over again," he told "Today."

Brewer said he recently visited Ratley, who is no longer in a medically induced coma but is unable to speak, swallow or move her right arm due to neurological damage.

"I hope she gets better, and I hope I see her again," Brewer said of Ratley. "As soon as she starts believing in herself, she can do it."

Though Brewer seemed eager to return to life as a normal 15-year-old boy, his mother, Valerie, told "Today" she is nervous about her son's return to school next week.

"I'm very apprehensive. I know I have to cut the cord again. I've been very protective of him, not letting him get very far from me," she said. "I know he's a very strong young man. He's determined. I know the school will protect him. He needs to get back out into the world and start experiencing real life again."