Students at an upstate New York high school confronted the Board of Education during a meeting on Tuesday after at least four fights broke out since the start of September.
Students, teachers and parents expressed their overwhelming discontent toward the lack of adequate disciplinary and safety protocols at Rush-Henrietta Senior High School.
They claim the entire student body has been desensitized to fights, substance use, and physical threats.
A handful of the speakers, both children and adults, cried in fear and frustration as they gave their testimonies.
‘School is honestly so scary that I plan escape routes every single school year in case anything happens,’ said senior Mia Artesa.
Last Thursday, a suspended student made his way into the school unnoticed, went into a classroom, and started attacking another student to the point of seizure.
‘I turn over and I see a person I’ve known since the fourth grade get beat,’ said Lexi, a student who witnessed the fight, her voice quivering as she held back tears.
‘I had to watch as his eyes went blank and he fell to the floor. It’s something I will never forget,’ she said.
The child was left unattended as he seized on the ground for 20 minutes, according to student testimonies given during the meeting.
Dozens of traumatized students confronted their school district after four fights have broken out since the start of September at Rush-Henrietta Senior High School in Henrietta, New York
Police responded to the fight which occurred at the high school last Thursday, leaving a student hospitalized
Student council President Omar Ali mentioned drug use at the school as one of the issues which needs to be addressed to ensure a safer environment for its students
The victim was eventually sent to the hospital, and the entire school went into a hold-in-place order, which turned into a lockdown due to suspicion of weapons, which turned out to be false.
Unaware of what had caused the lockdown, students started sending out texts to their loved ones in preparation for the worst-case scenario.
Students in the cafeteria were told to ‘make a run for it,’ without any clarification on whether they were in the middle of an intruder drill or if there was real danger, according to a statement read out by a board member on behalf of a student.
The PA announcement that ran shortly after the lockdown concluded told the students they had three minutes left to get to their next class, as per usual.
None of the children or teachers were told about the fight which triggered the lockdown, and thus they were left with circulating rumors imagining the worst, according to footage of the meeting.
‘From my perspective as a student, the lack of communication … created a great deal of uncertainty and made the situation feel way more serious than we understood it to be,’ said one student.
According to a statement given by student Philip Donk, the school misleadingly told the students that the police were at school that day as a precaution.
‘[The police] was here to stop a violent fight that sent someone to the hospital -They were not here as a precaution,’ he said.
Teacher Emily Lamica criticized the school district as students came up to the podium in support
Lamica said ‘I ask you to do this next part of your job without AI help. I ask you to do this next part of your job by listening to the people behind me and those behind them,’ in her statement to the board
Students left their seats to stand behind their teacher Emily Lamica in support as she confronted the school district
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How should schools balance student safety with fair discipline when violence keeps erupting?
He continued: ‘I realize that under the current administration nothing’s going to occur and that we’re going to be focusing on inserting AI into our learning experiences and making up acronyms.’
This was not an isolated incident at Rush-Henrietta.
At least four fights have broken out since the start of the school year, according to a statement given by a teacher. Three of them happened within three consecutive days last week, two of them in the same classroom.
Students who have kicked trash cans, cussed, and spit at teachers were let off with a slap on the wrist and a few days of suspension.
Student council members Shabir Zady and Omar Ali brought up their concerns regarding drug use and distribution at the school, and suspected that these fights are the byproduct of the blind eye the school continues to turn towards these issues.
‘I experienced first-hand what happened on Thursday September 24,’ said Lucy Mills, a senior at the school.
‘I wish that I and so many others didn’t have to compromise our safety to get a proper education.
‘I do not want myself or any other student to die in your halls with the only memory of our life being a plaque on your wall,’ she said.
Mills shared that she herself was threatened on two occasions, and no disciplinary measures were taken towards the aggressors.
The board did not have any follow-up questions for Mills.
Many of the students criticized the district’s tendency to downplay and mislead them regarding what goes on inside the administration.
‘When it comes to security, [the district] tells us that security is something that you focus on… But I see four new flat screen TVs in this cafeteria that we didn’t need,’ said student Jade Schwartz.
Following the first few testimonies from students, board members responded with their concerns.
One board member, Suzanne Bennett, used a quote from Mr Rogers and several references to coming-of-age movies of days past to support her statement.
‘Back to the Future, Pretty in Pink, Footloose, Glee, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, West Side Story, To Sir, with Love. What do all these shows have in common? High school fight scenes. The sad fact of the matter is that teenagers fight,’ Bennett said.
‘None of this makes fighting or violence right, but changing human nature is not going to happen anytime soon and I highly doubt it’ll be a school district that figures out how to do it,’ Bennett stated.
She continued: ‘Being of a certain generation, I watched Mr. Rogers all throughout my formative years. He said, “when I was a boy, and I saw scary things in the news, my mother told me to look for the helpers.”‘
Students can be heard booing the woman as she spoke, and especially after she finished speaking, according to the video footage.
The meeting concluded with a statement from teacher Emily Lamica, whose classroom was the scene of several fights.
During Thursday’s incident, her classroom was presided over by a substitute teacher as Lamica herself was at urgent care getting x-rays done after Tuesday’s fight, she said in her statement to the board.
As she criticized the district’s inability to take appropriate measures to decrease violence at Rush-Henrietta, students stood up and joined Lamica by the podium.
‘I ask you to do this next part of your job without AI help. I ask you to do this next part of your job by listening to the people behind me and those behind them,’ Lamica said.
‘You want to keep your job? So do I. You need to earn it by showing up and making things happen,’ she continued.
By the time Lamica had finished speaking, more than a dozen students stood behind her with their arms around each other’s shoulders.
