On Monday, a large brawl at District 87 broke out between students and staff leaving one officer hospitalized. Another physical altercation happened today, Sept. 14 2021.
Superintendent Barry Reilly said he learned from the Bloomington High School Administration’s investigation that the fight started from an “outside conflict in the community.”
“That spills over oftentimes in schools because there are paths that cross,” said Reilly. “Obviously if we get any information that tells us there is potential for that there are steps we can take to deescalate those situations to avoid physical altercations. We could do some conflict-resolution to avoid physical altercations.”
Reilly said the district was not led to believe something like this would happen.
“It was a spur of the moment and it was severe,” said Reilly. “The students that were involved I do not know what precipitated that conflict but I am told it started outside in the community.”
Reilly said there were two students, specifically, who had a problem outside of school and when they got there they made a “very poor” decision to engage in a fight.
“These incidents did involve police reports,” said Reilly. “There is potential for criminal charges.”
The State’s Attorney’s office will determine what those charges are. Reilly confirmed that the BHS School Resource Officer Scott Day was injured and transported to a hospital and is still being treated for injuries.
Chad Wallace, a former Resource Officer in a Georgia school and Team Blue Line founder and Executive Director, said arresting juveniles and dealing with school fights can weigh on you as an officer.
“I personally tried to have a good relationship with the parents and the kids,” said Wallace. “Sometimes parents would come up and ask me to speak to their kids and I wouldn’t be alone with the kids. I would keep the parents there to find out what’s going on. As a resource officer, you want to be there to help the parents and help the child and sometimes the middle mediation with both of them…you can find out what’s going on.”
Wallace said in the state of Georgia someone 17 years-old or older can be prosecuted as an adult or minor. He said sometimes parents disagreed with that in his time as a resource officer.
Reilly said the Athletic Director Tony Bauman, who is seen on video being thrown onto the ground by students involved in the massive fight, did not suffer any injuries.
“Disciplinary action that some students that were involved in this will be severe and that will be up to and including recommendations for expulsion,” said Reilly.
There was yet another physical altercation at BHS today, Sept. 14 2021.
“That (altercation) deescalated quickly,” said Reilly.
Reilly said in any situation where a student observes, participates in or hears about any situation…then the district is there to provide services.
“If we see anybody who needs that we will not hesitate to reach out,” said Reilly. “Those people who will do that are Administrators, their school psychiatrist and people who are trained in that will do that in the coming days.”
Reilly said “conflicts in the community” could be over girlfriends, extended family members…but Reilly said that doesn’t really matter because their students know and understand that something like the violent situation transpired is unacceptable.
“These incidents are few and far between and they don’t represent the vast majority of students in school,” said Reilly. “I can’t tell you if we will ever get to the bottom of: Why?”
Reilly said when students, like these involved, who ignore staff and other students who try to break up fights…that makes for an unsafe environment for students and staff members.
Reilly said situations like what happened yesterday are grounds for removal from school. Reilly said the resource officer Scott Day does have a gun on him and is in regular Bloomington Police issued equipment.
A record number of school shootings since March, when many schools began to reopen, according to the Washington Post.
Over the course of 2021, more minors have been shot in Chicago than have died of COVID-19 in all of the United States, according to data from police and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Which begs the question: Did Lockdowns impact student behavior to severe levels?
Reilly said students could have been out of school for upwards of a year and a half that has an impact.
“Kids have to relearn norms and expectations,” said Reilly. “But in these situations…they know better. Whether it is COVID or masking that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to correlate to a fight. What does make sense is that there are issues with kids returning to a structured environment.”
Now is there concern that teachers of the district will flee after a severe altercation like this?
Reilly said District 87 teachers are resilient.
“We always debrief with our teachers,” said Reilly. “Much like with students who we have concerns about, we would do the same with teachers.”
