Police: 1 student injured, 5 arrested
Cloonan Middle School fight has Stamford seeking solutions
STAMFORD — After a violent fight at a downtown middle school that resulted in one student suffering injuries to his head and knee, school officials and community members are looking for ways to address the issue.
According to police, a student at Cloonan Middle School was attacked by five other students in one of the school’s bathrooms Tuesday morning. The student was thrown to the ground and kicked and suffered a possible concussion as well as a possible torn ligament in one of his knees, according to police Capt. Diedrich Hohn.
The five students, all juveniles, were arrested and charged with second-degree assault and breach of peace, Hohn said.
The fight resulted in the school being placed on lockdown “while we resolved this isolated incident,” Principal David Tate wrote to parents in a message later that morning. In that message, Tate wrote that the students involved were “immediately disciplined” and will face other action under Board of Education policies.
“We make every effort to create and maintain a safe environment for all students and staff and have zero tolerance for this behavior,” he wrote. “Please take this opportunity to reinforce this with your child.”
Justin Martin, spokesperson for the school district, said the details of what happened remain unclear.
“We still do not have all the details on the fight itself,” he wrote, in an emailed message. “There is conflicting information about how this happened and who was involved.”
At the Stamford Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, board president Jackie Heftman briefly addressed the incident and called for a “community conversation” in order to find solutions to violence inside of schools.
The beginning of the school year, when students returned to school buildings full time for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, was marked with multiple fights at the city’s high schools.
Videos of many of those fights have been posted on social media.
According to police, about 20 students were arrested over the first six weeks or so of the school year.
During the public comment portion of the Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, some of the speakers referred to the incident at Cloonan and how best to handle such acts of violence.
“As a parent, this worries me,” said parent Maya Donald. “It worries me because I think of combining kindergarten through eight and seeing police at the school.”
Donald seemed to be referring to the city's plan to close four schools — Toquam Magnet Elementary School, KT Murphy Elementary School, Dolan Middle School and Cloonan — while expanding Roxbury and Westover Magnet elementary schools into K-8 facilities, and building a new K-8 Hart Magnet Elementary School at the current location of Cloonan.
Donald called for members of the board to get together with staff and community members to address the issue.
“We can get together with community leaders … to figure out what we can do to help these kids who are turning to violence, to turn it around to learning to communicate properly, to love each other and most importantly to love themselves,” she said.
Wilner Joseph, a community activist, was more forceful in his comments.
“The schools are out of control and nobody is stepping up to the plate to fix these issues,” he said. Joseph runs several enrichment programs, including an after-school program at Cloonan called Young Athletes 4 Change. He described the program as 40 minutes of basketball and 20 minutes of talking. The idea behind it is to get students to open up about their experience and challenges through the vehicle of basketball.
“These kids need guidance,” he said. “Every kid needs a mentor.”
Like Donald, he asked for more support.
“Let's figure out how we can collaborate and help these kids out,” he said.