Controversy
On Thursday, November 11, 2010 two freshman students (Sahee Bell and Donovan Garner) were allegedly hazed. They were standing in the school parking lot after basketball practice on November 11, 2010 when a group of older students yelled 'There go some freshmen'. and started taunting them. According to the police report, the older students forced the young students into the trunk of a senior car and a 17-year-old girl drove the car around the school parking lot at about 25 miles an hour with the boys locked in the trunk. After attempting to escape, one (Bell) was dragged across the school parking lot, face against pavement with one leg stuck in the trunk. The car was then put into reserve and backed over Bell, he was treated and released from University Hospital. Four students from the school were arrested and charged with felonious assault, abduction, kidnapping and hazing. Cleveland Metropolitan School District Humanware Division sent crisis counselors along with members of the CMSD Anti-Bullying Team to counsel students and remind them of their rights and responsibilities. Parents were alarmed and appalled.".
A statement was issued by Dr. Eugene Sanders, CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, stating: the district is taking the situation at Whitney Young School for Gifted & Talented Students seriously.
The release quoted Sanders as saying, "Any student tradition that involves intimidation or results in physical or emotional harm to any student will not be tolerated. Our Crisis Teams and our Safety & Security personnel are working closely with the Cleveland Police Department to send a clear message to all students that the consequences of such behavior are severe".
On Friday, January 25, 2013 a 12-year-old male student at Whitney Young was arrested for allegedly raping a 13-year-old male classmate in a bathroom in the school. The Cleveland Police were called and are investigating the alleged rape. According to a police report, the boy accused a 12-year-old male classmate of raping him inside a bathroom.
“These two kids had went to the bathroom together and after awhile they realizes that they’ve been gone too long. Another teacher goes in the bathroom and they sees my son with his pants down around his ankles,” the victims father said. According to the report, the 12-year-old boy denied the accusations, but he was arrested and later released to a parent.
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District released the following statement: “The staff at Whitney Young school responded quickly and appropriately to the allegation on Friday. Parents were immediately notified and authorities were contacted to examine the students and to begin a full investigation. While the Cleveland Police Department continues their investigation, school officials have remained in contact with the family, providing information on academic and emotional supports available for the student.”
Read more about this topic: Whitney Young Middle School
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)