Middle School Parents, Administrators Discuss Behavioral Concerns

ENFIELD, CT — About a dozen parents of students at John F. Kennedy Middle School met with a pair of school administrators Thursday morning to air concerns about what they described as an increased volume of violent incidents at the school.

Sarah Brown, who took on the principal's job this academic year, and assistant principal Ashley Schell met for more than 90 minutes with the parents, who said their previous pleas for action had not been adequately resolved.

One father of a sixth-grader told Patch his daughter has been threatened while riding the bus, and there have been "multiple incidents with a certain student."

"I have gone through the administration with my daughter's situation over and over and over again, and they put them at the front of the bus - nothing substantial as far as punishments," he told Patch. "My daughter does not really feel safe going to school."

Before entering the school Thursday, the mother of another sixth-grader told Patch, "I'm here because the new principal changed the protocol on how we handle offenses of children being in fights. It has been continuing incidences of kids being attacked, they had two "secure the school" situations in one day for kids being attacked. It's been constant since school started."

One parent said the issues have ranged from name-calling and threats on buses, to cases of actual assault.

"I came upon one [video] of a kid who was on the floor wrapped in a fetal position while other kids were just popping him - beating on him," he said. "One kid was filming it and there was no teacher in sight."

Brown referred questions from Patch to Superintendent of Schools Steven Moccio, who said, "We recognize the uptick in behavior, specifically at JFK, and Ms. Brown and her fellow administrators are taking the necessary steps to address the matter."

At Tuesday night's Board of Education meeting, Moccio said, "March saw a good size uptick in what student behaviors we were seeing. I will say throughout the school year, the staff has done a phenomenal job, especially coming off of everything that occurred last spring."

A budget crisis forced the cutting of dozens of staff members and teachers for this academic year, including the layoffs of more than a dozen behavioral specialists. Several parents said they feel these cuts, in addition to elimination of the middle school sports programs, have contributed to what they see as a surge in abhorrent behavior.

Meanwhile, administrators are working to improve the overall environment at the middle school, according to Moccio.

"They will be reinforcing their expectations across the board related to student behavior," he said. "We have procedures in place; a secure school isn't necessarily about an outside threat, sometimes it's utilized for medical emergencies, privacy matters and things of that nature. Every time we call that, in my opinion we have an increased level of anxiety that's happening for kids."