Videos lay bare schools’ violence
Cellphone footage from Hudson students shocks parents, who urge action
HUDSON — As the grainy cellphone video begins, a gasp is heard coming from several Hudson Junior High School students.
The student holding the phone has it pointed toward the ground, capturing the feet of several others as they hurry across the room. The perspective rises to show a girl charging another female student.
“Why? WHY??” the first girl screams before slapping the second across the face.
The second girl jumps at her assailant and slaps back, and then the two are punching each other in the head and ripping hair as they knock into chairs and tables. A school employee tries to intervene but appears overwhelmed before retreating as the two teenagers continue to beat each other.
A third girl enters the frame, at first seeming to attempt to break up the fight, but then begins delivering overhand smacks to the head and face of one girl.
The video was one of 10 obtained by the Times Union showing recent fights between students at Hudson’s schools. One of the videos is from the senior high school, while the other nine are from the junior high. (The schools share a single campus.) Because the videos involve minors, the Times Union has decided to not publish them.
Parents said fights at Hudson Junior High School have become more frequent since students returned to in-person classes in the fall of 2021, accompanied by a rise in bullying and a disregard for teachers’ authority. Other incidents have also set parents on edge, including one last week in which a student threatened a school shooting, and a parent reportedly hit a student who had been bullying their child.
“The teachers are afraid, the students are afraid,” one parent said. “It’s a volatile environment where no learning can go on.”
The Times Union interviewed four parents of Hudson Junior High School students about the situation.
All agreed to be quoted only if their names were not used due to the fear that their children would face retaliation from other students.
Bullying with cellphones
One parent’s child had been bullied throughout the sixth grade, and it only got worse in the seventh. In one instance, another girl confronted her in the bathroom, physically harassing and humiliating her while another girl filmed the abuse. The video was then distributed to other students.
Much of the bullying involved social media, the parent said. After being off social media for months because of the harassment, her daughter logged back in to find a public group on one platform devoted exclusively to degrading her.
Parents said students often recorded video of instances of bullying at the school, and nearly always recorded fights. Students then distributed the videos through Airdrop, the Apple service that allows files to be shared with iPhone users within a certain distance.
In one of the more violent videos obtained by the Times Union, a girl is seen stabbing at a male student’s head and back with what looks like a pencil as she restrains him by grabbing his clothing with her other hand. She appears to make contact with the boy’s back at least twice in the video before school employees are able to intervene.
In a Feb. 15 letter to students’ families and district staff, Hudson Superintendent Lisamarie Spindler wrote about addressing “incidents and events, both on and offcampus, that took place last week.”
The letter mentions the “altercation” involving the girl and boy “where one student made a motion with a pencil in their hand that may be considered a ‘stabbing ’ motion.”
An investigation by the district found the student did not make contact with the other student, Spindler said.
Another parent said her child has shown her some of the videos. “Fistfights happen pretty frequently,” the parent said.
The situation was especially perilous in the school’s bathrooms, where students went to settle scores because there are no security cameras. The stalls often had their doors torn off, according to the parent, who called the situation “anarchy in the bathroom.”
Responding to a question from the Times Union about how much of an issue bullying was at the schools, Spindler wrote the district “is aware of and understands the community concern regarding recent incidents.”
“Please know we are taking action to acknowledge and address the matter to ensure that our district is a safe environment to work in and attend school,” Spindler wrote. “We treat every threat and incident, alleged or actual, seriously and with care.”
To address bullying, the district has agreed to engage with STOPit Solutions, a 10-year-old company that works with schools to reduce bullying, and is considering several of its programs.
According to Spindler, these include a system for anonymously reporting complaints, an app that allows users to instantly alert staff and 911 of emergency situations, and a social-emotional learning curriculum. The school’s website already includes a link to the state’s Dignity for All Students reporting form.
The district has also planned a community forum and focus groups comprised of students and staff, with the resulting information to be given to the school safety committee, Spindler said.
Jahed Miah graduated in 2016 from Hudson Senior High School. He said there were fights when he was a student, though he didn’t know enough about the current situation to say whether their frequency had increased.
He said the broad distribution of violent or abusive videos was “definitely something new.”
Spindler said videos of fights at the school “are prohibited from being posted to social media,” but “due to the prevalence of students’ cellphones with readily accessible video capabilities, this is difficult to monitor.”
A fourth parent said the situation at the junior high school was “just getting progressively worse.”
“The kids just don’t give a crap — they just do whatever they want,” the parent said. “I don’t know what (teachers) can do, but something’s got to be done.”
The parent suggested students weren’t being punished enough and fighting had become normalized, but had good things to say about many of the school’s teachers.
“A lot of the teachers in Hudson are pretty amazing, but when they have this stuff going on all the time, I would imagine it’s hard to keep the kids’ attention,” she said. “It’s just not a good environment.”
A threat at Hudson Junior High School
On Feb. 16, parents were panicked to learn a student had threatened to shoot up the junior high.
Spindler sent out a text and email alert while the initial investigation was being conducted by police; a second alert the next day said the investigation found there was no threat to the district, and the student did not have access to a weapon.
Hudson Police Chief Ed Moore said the threat was overheard by a third party, who reported it.
The Hudson Police Department has a school resource officer on campus, Moore said, and other police from the department “very infrequently” had to respond to incidents at the institution, estimating they were called there once or twice a year.
Still, the threat rattled parents. “A ton of parents that I know kept their kids home,” one said.
Bullying at the school has had other repercussions. On Feb. 7, a parent was arrested for reportedly striking a child on the school’s campus who had allegedly been bullying her child. The parent was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, and will not be allowed on school property for the rest of the school year, according to a letter from Spindler that explained the incident.
Most parents blamed the pandemic’s impact on the school community for the situation in Hudson. One parent said her children “had definitely lost a full year of school,” calling remote education “an absolute joke.” Another parent said she believed students “had completely lost their social skills” during the health crisis.
The parent whose child was bullied in the bathroom said the pandemic had impeded some students’ ability to feel empathy.
“The primary issue is kids readjusting to ‘normal’ society after learning during COVID that it’s OK to say whatever one wants as a keyboard warrior,” the parent wrote.
The parent added that she thought Spindler has been trying hard to improve the situation. Other parents disagreed, with one saying Spindler had only hired new staff — including a restorative justice specialist and a social worker — “after we made a stink.”
The next school board meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, has been moved from its normal spot to a room with more space: the cafeteria. Parents expect it will be packed.