Lehigh Acres, Florida School Experiencing Violence, with multiple incidents of students attacking each other, and a teacher.
By Eileen Griffin
A Florida middle school has experienced multiple incidents of student-on-student violence, documented by videos the students post online.
Parents from Lemuel Teal Middle School in Lehigh Acres, Florida are asking for a response to the posted videos of students engaged in violent attacks, Wink News reports.
Parents in the school district are questioning disciplinary measures. They are asking administrators for a better response and more punishment when these acts occur. Parents have also asked to have the videos documenting the attacks removed from social media.
Students are attacking each other in hallways, bathrooms, and on the school bus, WINK reports. It is scary for both the students and the parents.
Parents sent videos to WINK, which showed them in its newscast. One video shows a child being hit in the head by two students while riding a school bus.
Lehigh Acres parents told the outlet that they want more discipline at the schools. The principal told the outlet that they discipline students who record fights for violating the cell phone policy.
In a statement provided to the outlet, the school said that violence in schools is not unique to Lehigh Acres schools.
“Sadly, school fight video pages are a national problem. Our schools routinely report these pages to the social media companies with no response.”
About 7 miles down the road, another school in the Lehigh Acres neighborhood was also the site of a recent violent act on campus, WINK reports.
At Varsity Lakes Middle School, a 13-year-old boy, urged on by a group of classmates, hit his 71-year-old teacher in the head. The teacher reported blurry vision and pain. She was taken to the hospital.
The student was arrested and charged with battery against the teacher.
The school environmental safety incident reporting (SESIR) tracks violence in Florida schools and has documented an increase in the past three years in the Lehigh area generally, and Varsity Lakes Middle School specifically.
In April, the Lee County School District proposed a dozen new rules to attempt to correct the poor behavior exhibited on school grounds, WINK reports.
The district is creating policies to address students engaging in threatening and intimidating behavior, as well as battery and drug use.
“There’s also hope that the new code of conduct will get the attention of parents, and help bridge the gap between classroom and home life,” WINK reporter Peter Fleischer writes.
In a Lee County schools survey conducted during the 2022-23 school year, 12 percent of elementary students, 29 percent of middle school students and 35 percent of high school students do not feel safer with an adult present.
Larry Sand, President of the California Teachers Empowerment Network, writes that too many teachers and students are not safe in the classroom. At least 67 percent of public schools have reported at least one violent incident.
While the problem has been documented, a solution is not clear with different options suggested by various entities.
Teachers’ unions and others on the Left recommend restorative justice, but Sand says that is not the answer.
“This touchy-feely new-age malarkey is dangerous,” Sand writes. “The National Education Association continues to preach that the “school-to-prison pipeline” is disrupted by restorative justice. But in reality, students are more apt to be imprisoned due to the practice.”
Having police officers available on campus has proven beneficial, but the defund the police movement is often supported by teachers’ unions, as Heartland Daily News has previously reported.
“Having a campus cop is helpful,” Sand writes. “A law enforcement officer surely is a deterrent to some miscreants. It’s important to note that while many teacher union leaders want to defund the cops, many boots-on-the-ground teachers disagree.”
“No one benefits from out-of-control students,” Sand writes. “It’s time to do something that works before our schools and culture deteriorate even further.”
For more great content from School Reform News.