THE VIDEO IN THIS STORY WAS INCORRECTLY IDENTIFIED AS OCCURRING IN A NEWBURGH SCHOOL. SPOKESWEOMAN DR. CASSIE SKLARZ SAID IT DID NOT TAKE PLACE IN THAT DISTRICT, THEREFORE WE REMOVED ALL REFERENCES. WE REGRET THE ERROR.
Following three incidents in Middletown High School on Monday – one, a verbal altercation involving five students, and two others, involving physical altercations in and outside the large cafeteria – top school officials are clamping down effective May 2.
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said recent state laws are not making the situation any easier.
“Under the criminal justice reforms of the last 2 ½ years, it certainly makes it a lot harder for us to hold the 16-, 17-year-old and younger kids responsible, accountable for the actions that they take in the schools, in particular with the fights that are occurring,” he said.
Acting Newburgh Schools Superintendent Ed Forgit posted on Facebook that all schools in the district would open with a two-hour delay because of alleged threats made against some of the schools.
The time will allow coordination with police and crisis intervention support, he said.
“The district is deeply saddened with the racially charged nature of the messages viewed on social media,” Forgit said.
In Middletown, Superintendent of Schools Amy Creeden and high school Executive Principal Dr. Lynette Williams issued a letter to high school families. “While we are aware social media is not the only cause of issues in our schools, it is absolutely the catalyst for many of the instances of violence we are encountering as of late,” the administrators wrote.
They announced tightened security measures.
“In all instances, scholars were interviewed, families were contacted and appropriate disciplinary consequences were administered,” they said. “We will not have any tolerance for Code of Conduct violations.” They said students staging fights and/or sharing videos of those fights on social media is “incomprehensible.”
