Tag Archives: school violence

Violence against Bishop McDevitt Students Reported

Harrisburg PA

Three separate incidents of violence involving Bishop McDevitt students occurred in a 24-hour period, according to police.

A 15-year-old student was beaten and robbed as he left school on Tuesday. Three men wearing hoodies punched and kicked him and took his cellphone, police said.

The student is OK and back in school, but still very shaken up after what happened Tuesday, school officials said.

On Wednesday morning, a group shot at students and a school bus with a BB or pellet gun. No one was hurt in the incident.

The principal is increasing security and asking students not to walk alone and to move parking to the rear of the school.

 

Girl Attacked at School with Box Cutter Speaks Out

Macon, GA

A Hutchings Career Center student is speaking out about violence in schools after being attacked with a box cutter.

Anesha Henderson, 16, was attacked by a classmate while on her way to class in September.

“Her and her friend said something, so I said ‘okay whatever’. So the girl came behind me and hit me in the back of the head,” Henderson said, “So when I turned around I hit her back. We started fighting and I didn’t even feel when she cut me.”

Both girls were suspended and Henderson’s attacker was arrested. According to Bibb County schools, Henderson’s attacker snuck the box cutter in by wrapping it up inside of money. Henderson said despite metal detectors and campus security, weapons still make it on campus.

“When people fight,” Henderson said, “people bring guns and knives to school.”

Since the incident, the school district has hired a new campus police chief. Russell Bentley took over in October. He’s conducted several random searches on campuses to crack down on illegal activity in schools.

Rampant Violence Cancels Classes At OKC Elementary School

Oklahoma City, OK

Oklahoma City Public School canceled classes to address the ongoing violence and widespread school suspensions at North Highland Elementary.

The meetings between school leaders and teachers come after parents and community members complained North Highland Elementary Schools students are fighting. There have been a reported 34 school suspensions in the first three months of school. 

“The language that they use is something that you wouldn’t believe comes out of a child that young’s mouth,” said Lisa Hearst, who lives near the school. 

Teachers and Oklahoma City School administrators had a meeting Friday. Meanwhile, stakeholders in the community are having similar conversations.

Teens Charged with Taking Weapons to Baltimore Co, Arundel Co. Schools

Baltimore, MD

Authorities charged two 17-year-old students Tuesday with bringing weapons to schools in unrelated incidents in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties.

Police said there were no injuries in either case, and neither student made a threat. But the incidents continue a string of school violence scares in the Baltimore area this fall.

Tips for Selecting a School Safety Expert Witness

We have posted previously on tips for selecting a qualified school safety expert witness.  We have had excellent feedback from attorneys as well as from key personnel from two of the nation’s largest insurers of public and non-public K12 schools. 

I wrote an expanded article which was published in Campus Safety Magazine which has likewise had good feedback from readers of that magazine.  This is likely because there can be problems with the qualifications and credibility of some expert witnesses in any field, school safety experts are largely unregulated. While there are numerous talented, honest and highly qualified school safety experts, this lack of regulation can make it extremely difficult to properly evaluate expert witnesses for school safety cases.   Reader feedback from the Campus Safety article indicated the need for more detail on how to screen school safety subject matter experts.

We decided to develop an expanded paper on this topic to provide assistance to school officials, risk managers, insurance professionals, attorneys and judges who are tasked with evaluating qualified expert witnesses for cases involving school safety.  Evaluating an Expert Witness for School Safety Cases is a comprehensive research paper on this important topic. This can be a critical aspect for litigation and criminal cases involving technical questions relating to school security, school violence, bullying, student supervision, school crisis planning, school bus security and other areas where school safety experts are often required for defense counsel and for prosecutors or plaintiff’s counsel.  While finding a properly qualified school safety expert witness is important for litigation support, it is especially crucial when a testifying school safety expert witness is needed.  We have tried to address this in this paper.

Fortunately, Attorney Sue Ann Hartig was kind enough to assist me by reviewing and editing this paper.  Mrs. Hartig is an accomplished attorney who also is a subject matter expert who presents on school child custody issues.  With her unique background, she provided valuable insight for this paper.

We hope this paper will prove useful to you in your work.

We will soon release a new paper focused on tornado preparedness for schools and are working on several more papers that will be released later in the year.  We welcome reader feedback and suggestions for other topics that might be helpful to our readers. 

If you would like to receive an automatic notification for upcoming papers, please sign up for our free e-newsletter.

NYC Teacher Sues City, Claims He was Beaten Up by First-Grader

New York City

A hulking Queens gym teacher and former college football player claims a pupil fractured his ankle, injured his knee and forced him to go to a shrink for stress — even though the kid was only 50 pounds and in first grade.

Burly, 220-pound PS 330 teacher John Webster, 27, said a 4-foot-2 Rodrigo Carpio, 6, also kicked and pinched the Elmhurst school’s principal, a security officer and another teacher during a rampage in April.

Fight at an Oakland High School causes Police to Shut Down Street

Oakland, CA

A huge fight erupted at Castlemont High School Friday, the biggest such incident at a public school citywide in at least two years.

School district spokesman Troy Flint said Oakland School Police officers reported that about 50 students appeared to have been involved in the fight. It began in an outdoor common space behind the school auditorium at about 1:15 p.m., and was followed by several side-scuffles, he said.

Flint said the officers believed a conflict between groups of black and Latino students might have triggered or fueled the violence. “It definitely had some sort of racial element,” he said.

The East Oakland school‘s ethnic makeup is predominately black and Latino; in 2011-12, about 48 percent of students were Latino and 44 percent were African-American. Castlemont, which for years had consisted of three small schools, merged this year into one school with roughly 700 students.

To contain the violence and chaos, Oakland police officers shut down the stretch of MacArthur Boulevard in front of the school. They reopened the street at 1:40 p.m., after about 20 minutes.