Did You See SVU Last Night?

Did you see Law & Order Special Victims Unit last night about the trans student?
The Advocate wrote this about the show,

“Transgender Bridge,” tonight’s episode of NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, is summarized by the network as a tale of “transgender tragedy”: “When a transgender teen is taunted by high school kids, bullying escalates to tragedy.”
[…]
Tonight, a 15-year-old transgender girl named Avery Parker is shown walking home from school through New York City’s Fort Tryon Park, where she’s surrounded by a group of rowdy boys.

“Taunts and jokes intensify to pushing and shoving,” reads the show’s official description, “leaving Avery in the hospital and three assailants under arrest.”

I thought the topic was handled well; they raised a lot of questions for the viewer to think about while at the same time pointing out that discrimination and violence is wrong. Entertainment Weekly said,

The conversation in the episode turns to the lack of understanding surrounding transgender individuals, and the conversation at the roundtable followed suit.

“We’re at a moment where it’s becoming understood in certain classes and certain parts of society,” Leight said. “I love that kids now grow up without the stigma attached to homosexuality that, when I was growing up, that was the worst insult you could give someone. A lot of kids are growing up without that stigma in their head, and it’s beginning to go that way for transgender kids. The essential kid in our episode, she’s growing up in a home that’s evolved and supportive, in a school where people look out for her. But she’s prey on the streets. Her guard is down, because she’s received enough acceptance that her guard is dropped on the streets.”

The parents of the trans child do not want the teenager charged with a hate crime because their daughter believed in forgiveness, while the prosecutor wants to prosecute the child as an adult and with a hate crime to make a point that it is not acceptable to assault a transgender person. The Advocate goes on to say,

When the worst happens and the district attorney’s office decides to try one of the culprits as an adult, “the SVU squad agonizes over whether the punishment fits the crime, and must deal with the pain of both families involved,” according to a spokeswoman for NBC.

So did you see the show? If you did what did you think? Should he have been charged as a hate crime? What about his sentence, was it too harsh?