Six Florida high school students were arrested Friday in a violent incident that left one student seriously injured.
Ryan Shurley, principal of North Port High School, did not describe the incident in an open letter to parents posted to the school’s Facebook page, but he said that additional arrests are possible.
“Significant disciplinary consequences are also being implemented, and several other students will not be returning to North Port High School due to their involvement,” Shurley wrote.
North Port Police told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that the injured student had been released from the hospital, and officials told the Port Charlotte Daily Sun that the incident was a fight in a boy’s bathroom.
A video briefly posted to social media and then removed showed at least eight male students involved in the brawl, the Sun said. One boy asks others to “not let anybody in” while a group of students yell obscenities at what appears to be just one other student. The group is seen kicking and punching him before one student puts him in a headlock and then tells him to “get up.”
“Let me be clear: intentional violence towards others will never be tolerated at North Port High School,” Shurley said in his lengthy Facebook post. “There are no exceptions. When behavior rises to criminal conduct, law enforcement will be involved immediately, every time.
“Fighting, encouraging fights, filming altercations, or escalating conflicts directly contradicts the positive culture we are building. This behavior threatens the safety of our school and will not be normalized. When students choose to surround themselves with this type of behavior by promoting it, recording it, or remaining in the middle of it signals acceptance. That choice can be just as damaging and can carry serious ramifications.”
Shurley called on parents to speak with their children and “make it clear that who they align themselves with matters.
“Poor decisions made in moments of emotion or choosing loyalty to the wrong crowd can carry lifelong consequences. Protecting their future requires courage and decisive action, not silence and not spectatorship.”
He also urged any student who feels unsafe at school to report it to an adult.
“We will intervene,” he said. We will enforce our Code of Conduct without hesitation.
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[Featured image: North Port High School/Google Maps]
