DANVILLE, Ill. — Seven students are facing expulsion for their involvement in last week’s after-school brawl at Danville’s North Ridge Middle School, according to School Board President Darlene Halloran.
Halloran said after reviewing security footage and interviewing students, Superintendent John Hart learned the incident lasted 31 seconds and started as a prearranged altercation between two girls.
“That’s how we were able to identify the seven students involved,” Halloran said. “Those seven students will come before the Board of Education for an expulsion hearing.”
Halloran said what the district found through its investigation was a lot different from the rumors circulating around social media.
“At some point somebody said 50 students. That was not true,” Halloran said. “Of course, that kind of thing spreads like wildfire.”
The board will hear each student’s case individually sometime next week, according to Halloran. Even if they decide to expel any of the seven students from North Ridge, she said they’ll get a second chance elsewhere.
“When we expel students, we do not kick them out of school and deny them education,” Halloran said. “Ethically and legally, we cannot do that. We are obligated to educate all of our students. We will find alternative placements, whether that be Kenneth Bailey Academy or the regional safe school, Middlefork.”
Nonetheless, the school will continue its new strategy of staggering bell times to avoid overcrowding in the halls and prevent another fight from breaking out, according to Halloran.
“What our administrators are working so hard to change in their building has been successful until now,” Halloran said. “If it happens once, that’s one time too many.”
Halloran also said North Ridge’s principal, school resource officer and a teacher were also trying to stop the fight. She said she’s making it a point to try to discipline the students who stood nearby taking video instead of helping as well.
According to WCIA 3 News.