Special Message

By now you have probably heard or read that we had a fight outside of the high school yesterday at dismissal time. As the situation was unfolding, members of the media were calling me because they were receiving calls from parents and community members about a large police presence at the high school. This is totally understandable considering the twenty-four hour news cycle we live in. I asked all of the media outlets to hold on until I could get the situation sorted out. All but one outlet agreed. That happens; we deal with it and move on.

Anyone who has followed my communications over the years knows that I give as many details as I can, when I can. Yesterday, I sent out a brief overview of what happened. Absent from the communication were details that we did not know until we completed our investigation at approximately 12:30 a.m. this morning.

I will try to make a long story short, but will include all of the facts that I think you need to know as parents, community members, and students, and how we are moving forward.

First, the incident was not random, and the incident involved two students, in total, fighting. There were a few other individuals who were present and who watched the fight, but were not involved in the actual fighting. Some of those individuals are current students, and the others are not.

Second, the actual fight lasted approximately forty seconds, however, the stir it caused, as well as the quick police presence (I will get to that), made it feel like twenty minutes.

Third, one of the students fighting did, for a short time, possess a small pocket knife that he had taken from and returned to a vehicle he had been in. The knife did not make contact with anyone, but it is clear that he was in possession of it for a brief time.

One of the individuals was in possession of a broomstick handle for a brief period. That was taken from the trunk of his vehicle, was in his possession for a brief period, and was returned to his vehicle.

As you might imagine, if you were an administrator or School Resource Officer running to a "possible fight" in the parking lot, and you see the fight, plus a couple hundred students trying to get into their own cars and leave for the day, you would call for backup. The building principal called for backup. This created the large police presence that some of you saw or heard about. The positive take away from this is knowing that should we ever have a large emergency, we can bank on a large police presence quickly. They are to be commended for their professionalism and attention to detail, as are our administrators, who made all of the right decisions quickly and kept the situation from escalating.

So where do we go from here? First, we apply the Code of Conduct to any student participants, and then we work with the Camillus Police on the criminal charges that may apply to those involved.

I was very disappointed with the incident; but for reasons you might not think. We are a very large District but have great connections with students. I was very proud of our students who did all of the right things in terms of telling us about the fight and then getting out of the way. I was also very proud of our administrators and staff for quickly doing the right thing, as well as our School Resource Officer and the Camillus Police.

We work very hard to avoid incidents like the one that occurred yesterday. In fact, the last even remotely similar case we had to this one was eight years ago, and I am disappointed that the clock has to start ticking again.

As far as your children being safe? Absolutely. I do appreciate your trust and also appreciate your patience while we got everything sorted out. I will certainly keep you posted should we learn anything else.

On another note, tomorrow night is the Senior Ball. Tomorrow morning is the simulated DWI crash that we hold for the seniors at 7:30 a.m. in the front circle. You will see police cars again, but in a positive way; to help our students to make good decisions on one of the most important nights of their high school careers.

Thank you and enjoy the rest of the week.

Chris