Second brawl involving a taser in five school days

A parent informs the Policy Werkes: “Awesome. My kid has been at East for two weeks & this is the second such incident. The first was not reported [to parents]. Good thing we’ve got cops.”

Dear East Families,

I am writing you to let you know about a fight involving East students that began off-campus over the lunch hour today [09-24-19]. Unfortunately, this is not the first fight involving our students that has taken place near campus during lunch in the last two weeks. The physical altercation involved several students, and many other students were outside for the lunch hour to witness the conflict, so I want to communicate openly with you about what occurred while respecting the privacy of the students involved.  

Today’s incident began near 4th Street and Mifflin. Our staff responded and police were present to assist in de-escalating the situation. It has been reported to us that in a secondary conflict, across the street from school near 4th Street and Johnson, a responding Community Officer discharged their taser. Near the end of the lunch hour, we briefly closed school doors to ensure building safety before admitting students who were not involved to attend class.   

This incident did not disrupt the learning day for students at school after lunch and no students inside the school were in danger. As always, our students’ safety is our top priority and we will be working with our staff, students, families and other community supports to prevent these incidents from continuing to happen.   

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,
Brendan Kearney 
Principal