A teenage girl at Fairgrounds Middle School in Nashua, New Hampshire, was terrorized over the past week. She has been physically assaulted twice by two different students. And only after video of one assault became public is something being done.
Related: Nashua Overwhelms School System – Taxpayers Should Ask: Who Didn’t See This Coming?
The Union Leader reports today that the two girls responsible for the alleged abuse have had restraining orders placed on them. Do they know what that means besides next to nothing?
I’m also curious; If the first attacker were at least suspended (or expelled immediately), would there have been a second beating (which appears to have resulted in a concussion and a broken rib)? The two attackers are reported “friends” who filmed each others handiwork.
This is what the first one looks like.
Why was the attacker not removed from the building indefinitely to protect the other student?
It appears that aside from talking not much was done about it until the victim’s father posted the video on Facebook about 10 days later. In the interim, based on his public statements, the alleged attackers had access to their prey. Whom they bullied daily.
Not much use having anti-bullying laws and rules if you won’t or can’t use them!
After a bit of poking around, there are rumors to share.
First, one of the two girls who are now under a restraining order may only be at Fairgrounds Middle School because of discipline problems in another school.
Second, there appears to be an unwritten policy in place that prohibits student expulsions in the Nahua School district. I’d be interested in confirmations of either circumstance. You can email me at steve@granitegrok.com. (Your identity will be kept secret). Update: Multiple sources confirm that the Nashua School Board has not approved any such policy.
We’ve Seen This Before.
The most recent widely publicized case of a school system that institutionalized programs to ignore bad behavior is in Broward County, Florida. Suspensions and expulsions didn’t happen often, and there were no referrals to police regarding criminal conduct that did not rise to a felony. And maybe even then.
The result was maximized chaos and disruption of the learning environment to keep troubled kids in the classroom at the expense of every other student.
Nikolas Cruz was an extreme case. A very disturbed individual from an early age who sent almost everyone who ever met him signals that he was mentally ill and in need of help. Cruz got shuffled around and was allowed to be disruptive until one day, he shot up Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
This comparison is not in any way meant to imply that the attackers in Nashua are or would ever become like Nikolas Cruz. I’m not here to compare students; I am here to compare discipline schemes.
If the rumors are true, Nashua may be flirting with a discipline policy similar to where Broward County ended up. A culture where kids inclined to cause trouble did because they knew there were no real consequences. Students and teachers hit the hardest. Sometimes, literally.
One spot of good news in Nashua. At least one of the attackers has been suspended for a week. That may have come post-public video, so we’ll try to nail that down for next time.
And yes, Superintendent Mosley is still adamant about students not videotaping fights. But I still have a sneaking suspicion that is because he doesn’t want to have to suspend students for fighting. Just my opinion, for now.
