Parents, Students Sound Off On, Question, Manchester High School Brawl

Parents and students packed the Manchester High School cafeteria Monday evening to get answers to, and sound off on, the that broke out in the school's hallway last Thursday morning.

The impromptu forum, convened with administrators of the high school, the Manchester School System's central office, and members of the Manchester Police Department, drew so many that it had to be moved from its initial location, a classroom, to the cafeteria to accommodate everyone who attended.

It is estimated that more than 200 parents and several dozen students attended, all of them seeking some sort of explanation about the events of Dec. 16 that resulted in the lockdown of the school for more than half an hour and . Although some clearly attended because they also wanted to vent their frustrations to anybody who would listen.

"How can you tell a child you can't go to school today because of the safety," said one concerned parent who held their child home the day after the event because of safety concerns.

While another said that she was "at work freaking out" because she kept getting text messages from her child that the school was in lockdown Thursday morning and nobody knew the reason why or what was going on. She said she thought the high school could have done a better job informing the parents of what had occurred and that all students were safe and secure.

"We don't know what's happening, we don't know that you broke up the fight and that everything is OK," she said.

Manchester High School Principal Kevin O'Donnell served as the de facto moderator of the forum, answering questions when he could, or passing the microphone along to another person in the room who was better prepared to field a specific question.

Several parents wanted to know how such a large fight could break out – some reports have put the total number of people involved at around 30 – on school grounds without anybody on the premise being aware that an event like that was about to occur.

O'Donnell said that any reports that school administrators knew an incident was going to occur prior to the fight breaking out were "totally false."

"The first I heard that there was going to be any instance on Thursday morning was 9 a.m. when it started," said O'Donnell.

What about the reports that the fight involved two gangs?

Keith Martin, an assistant principal at the school, said that although the fight involved two groups of students, classifying them as gangs might be an overreach.

"These are loosely associated groups," Martin said. "That's why you have to be careful sometimes with the gangs (label), because these students don't initially consider themselves a gang."

And what about the students involved?

O'Donnell and Superintendent Kathleen Ouellette said they could not talk about the specific penalties facing each student, but that none of the students have returned to school since the incident and that O'Donnell was recommending that all students involved be disciplined "as stringently as possible." He said the maximum expulsion period for a student permitted under state law was one school year.

A number of parents expressed frustration with the way they were notified about the incident – texts from their children or friends, news reports, emails – and demanded that the school implement some sort of mass email and text message alert system for future emergencies.

Patricia Brooks, an assistant to the superintendent, said that the school system recently purchased a reverse 911 dialing system through the town, which it used for the first time Friday night to alert parents of the forum. But many parents refused to except that explanation, some even shouting out that the school system should have tested the system prior to an incident like last Thursday's precisely to avoid the confusion and rumors that followed.

Ouellette conceded that the school system would have to do a better job of that in the future.

'There's a lot of frustration with us about how long it's taken to implement this system," she said.

One parent asked if race played any part in the fight.

Martin said that those rumors were completely unfounded.

"It was not Latinos and Hispanics against blacks. There were black and Latinos in both groups," he said. "This was not a race war."

A parent asked how long the increased police presence would remain in the school.

"We'll be there as long as it's necessary," said Cpt. James Nieswanger of the Manchester Police Department. "It's that simple."

O'Donnell said that, as a result of the altercation, the school will now be reinforcing several of its policies that it has let lapse in recent years, including locking all exterior entrances to the building except for the main entrance at 7:30 a.m. and requiring all students to display their student identification badges around their necks. Several parents and students complained that they were not notified of the ID requirement before Monday, when 239 students had to wait in the school's cafeteria, some for several hours, to have new badges printed and pay a $2 replacement fee.

O'Donnell said the policy is clearly spelled out in the school's handbook.

"I expect that every student we issued those to will have them on tomorrow," O'Donnell said. "I expect the message was delivered."

A parent asked if absences on the Friday after the fight would be counted against a student's record, since more than 400 parents elected to keep their children home from school that day.

O'Donnell said that the administration recognized that Friday might have been a "difficult day" for students at the school.

"We're not going to hold that as part of our attendance policy against students and their families who made the decision to keep their children home from school that day," he said.

Afterwards, O'Donnell thanked all who attended the forum, promised to stay behind to speak to any parents or students who still had questions individually, and pledged the safety of all the school's students.

"We appreciate your thoughts," he said. "And we'll keep your kids safe." 

Afterwards, Samantha Gates, a senior at the high school, described the current atmosphere amongst the about 1,900 students who attend the high school as "tense."

"Tensions are high and having an increased police presence in the school makes you feel safer, but obviously it leads to some tension," Gates said.