Hunt School Dance Incident

 Breaking News

According to three students who attended the Hunt Middle School Dance tonight, the dance was ended about 20 minutes earlier than scheduled due to what an assistant principal described as a "racist incident" in which and argument between two kids escalated as throngs of other kids began to swarm and chose sides posturing against each other in a threatening manner.  The witnesses said teachers were not allowing students to leave the school and were cordoning them in the auditorium for several minutes.  They said one teacher was taking video of the scene and bystanders, and at a certain point kids started to leave the auditorium en masse without permission.  Shortly after two police cruisers were seen leaving the scene.

Email update 1 from Hunt School's principal:

Sep 28 at 9:59 PM

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Tonight at the Hunt Middle School Dance there was an incident of racial harassment directed by students towards some of our students of color. This nearly resulted in an altercation, at which time Mr. Kelley chose to end the dance early. The police were called as a preventative measure to ensure the safety of everyone attending the dance. I would like to thank the officers for acting swiftly and compassionately towards our students.

I want to stress that no students were physically injured tonight and that all students were sent home safely. Mr. Kelley and I have already been in touch with the District’s Equity Coordinator as well as the Superintendent. Starting this weekend, we will be working to create a school-wide response for Monday morning when students arrive back to HMS. We will also do a full racial harassment investigation for those students who were offenders and targets of tonight's events.  If you have any more information regarding this incident, please either email me at mscheidt@bsdvt.org or call me Monday morning. If you would prefer to contact the Equity Coordinator, please email Sparks at hsparks@bsdvt.org.  

At Hunt we believe that “All are Welcome” and we believe that every student should feel valued and safe attending our school. I am deeply troubled by this event and would like to address this issue as a whole community so that we can prevent this from repeating again here at HMS.

Thank you,
Mattie Scheidt

Email update 2 from Hunt School's principal:

Sep 29 at 9:48 AM

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Last night I sent out the following email but had omitted the word alleged regarding the incident.  This was not intentional and I apologize for the oversight. As stated there needs to be a full investigation regarding the alleged incident.  We will follow the district policy and procedures. Please be assured that no conclusions of what happened have been determined. We are still gathering facts to make sure we have the full story.

 

Tonight at the Hunt Middle School Dance there was an alleged incident of racial harassment directed by students towards some of our students of color. This nearly resulted in an altercation, at which time Mr. Kelley chose to end the dance early... [original message repeats...]

Email update 3 from Hunt School's principal:

Oct 4 at 9:45 AM

Dear Hunt Community Members,

On Friday, September 28th, a racial harassment incident was alleged to have occurred during our school dance. As with all allegations of harassment we launched an investigation. After conducting a thorough investigation it was determined that there was no truth to the allegation .

It was found that students had not directly heard the racial slur but were reacting to a rumor they heard.  As our school district is implementing Restorative Practices we are working with the students involved to make repairs for the harm done to our community.  We are supporting the entire school community as we were all greatly impacted by this incident. We are aware that issues regarding race within our school and community exist. We will continue to make it a priority to address all diversity issues as a school.  Thank you for your ongoing support.

Mattie Scheidt 
Principal