20 Stamford students arrested, security officers injured, during fights
STAMFORD CT October 14 2021 At least a dozen students in Stamford have been arrested and charged after fights broke out at their high schools, and district administrators say they are working on ways to defuse bad behavior by teens.
Videos alleged to be of the fights in Stamford, which were filmed and posted on social media, show a group of students pummeling another student as he attempts to get away, other students throwing punches in a school bus and two students in a school bathroom repeatedly punching each other as other students film them.
The videos have been shared on different platforms, including Instagram and Snapchat.
“Central Office staff continues to work with building administration to address issues as well as assist with supports needed for individual students,” Olympia Della Flora, associate superintendent for school development, said in an email. “When a fight occurs, administration deals with each incident on a case-by-case basis to determine outcomes for students.”
Data kept on fights at schools is unclear.
There have been 20 arrests, 17 them at Stamford High School, while the other three took place at Westhill High School, Stamford Police Capt. Diedrich Hohn said.
The numbers differ from those reported by Della Flora, who said 12 students had been arrested through Sept. 30.
“It is important to note that oftentimes arrests do not occur due to fighting alone but may be attributed to other offenses,” she said in an emailed statement.
The most “disciplinary incidents involving fighting” — 11 — have occurred at Westhill High School from the start of the school year through Sept. 30, Della Flora said. Over the same time period, Stamford High has seen seven incidents, and the smaller Academy of Information Technology & Engineering has had one.
Compared with 2019, Stamford High and AITE have seen similar rates of sanctions because of fights in September, but Westhill has had more incidents this September compared with two years ago, Della Flora said.
Stamford Board of Education member Jackie Pioli sounded the alarm last week about fights in schools by sending an email titled “Fight clubs @ Westhill & Stamford High” to other board members and district administrators.
In the email, obtained by The Stamford Advocate this week, Pioli claimed a fight broke out between a female student and a male student, and that a fight almost started between a female security guard and a female student.
“Someone is going to get seriously hurt,” Pioli said in the email.
Two high school security guards have been injured breaking up fights, Hohn said. One, he said, was punched in the face and is currently out on leave.
The Advocate also obtained an email this week sent by Joan Tougas, assistant to Superintendent Tamu Lucero, in response to Pioli’s message. In it, Tougas said, “With our full return this year, we anticipated that this transition for some of our students would be difficult.”
In a telephone interview, Pioli said she asked before the summer about additional social-emotional supports for high school students in anticipation of the return to a full-time in-person schedule.
“There has been an increase in problematic behaviors among teens,” she said in an email from May to board members and district administrators.
This week, Pioli said the school district continues to take a reactive approach to solving problems, rather than a proactive one, a concern she expressed last year that she said was not listened to.
Pioli added, “We’re not supporting all of our students socially and emotionally.”
Board member Becky Hamman also criticized the administration as too reactive.
“This issue could have been addressed much sooner and eliminated within (one to two) weeks,” she said in a written message. “Now we are (five to six) weeks out and just starting to address (it).”
The district has provided school administrators training and support, Della Flora said, as a way to deal with poor student behavior using what she described as a “restorative approach.”
In a nutshell, the restorative approach seeks to work with a struggling student, instead of suspending the student. The district added seven restorative student support facilitators this year, for a total cost of about $600,000, she said.
The initiative is meant “to help build relationships between students and staff to foster a positive school culture and climate in all of our schools,” Della Flora said.
As far as making any changes at the schools in response to the fights, she said, “High schools have examined and adjusted safety and security protocols. It is important to note that the majority of our students come to school daily without any disciplinary incidents.”
The school resource officers at the buildings “work hand in hand” with principals and do their best “to mediate problems before the arise to violence, Hohn said.
“We have been highly successful adhering to the graduated response to discipline and arrest, but unfortunately when it arises to an arrest, this is a last resort in a school setting,” he said in an emailed statement. “But the students arrested has brought that upon themselves solely.”
Stamford Advocate
