Latest news with #GastonCountySchools
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Yahoo
Advocates protest, create petition following alleged attack at Gaston County high school
GASTONIA, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A Gaston County student will face charges, following an alleged assault caught on camera inside a classroom. It happened Tuesday at Ashbrook High School. Because the accused student is younger than 18, investigators are not releasing exactly what charges he will face. Gaston County Police turned this case over to the Department of Juvenile Justice. The alleged attack is causing quite the stir. Protesters went to this district office Thursday afternoon to share their concerns. 'I will stand up for these kids if nobody else will,' said Teresa MacFarlane, who protested. 'I will.' MacFarlane is one of about a dozen people, who brought signs and stood outside the Gaston County Schools Central Office Thursday afternoon in protest, after seeing a video of an alleged assault at Ashbrook High School. 'We have anti-bullying policies but apparently they're not working or we wouldn't be having situations like we had yesterday,' she said. The video shows one student repeatedly hitting another. It also shows the targeted student falling out of his chair and onto the ground. People online are claiming the victim may have special needs, but district leaders aren't able to confirm that because of privacy laws. 'We want the students to be able to go to school and learn, not be worried about their safety,' said MacFarlane. 'We want measures put in place to make that happen.' MacFarlane is an advocate for special needs children and started a petition calling for cameras in all Gaston County classrooms and for the district to adopt a zero-tolerance policy against bullying. More states move to ban cellphones in school as Georgia is latest to act Rule 6 in Gaston County Schools Student Code of Conduct states, 'students shall not bully or harass other students.' For high schoolers, the consequences range from in-school disciplinary action, such as long-term suspension, to criminal charges. Rule 10 states, 'students shall not fight or attempt to cause bodily harm to another student.' Those consequences range from up to 10 days of out-of-school suspension, to law enforcement involvement. 'We still have a lot of bullying going on in the school system that we need to address and we need for the school board to adopt some policies and procedures to nip this in the bud,' said MacFarlane. 'It's not okay with the citizens of Gaston County.' Queen City News reached out to Gaston County Schools officials and asked if they had any comments on the protest and petition. We're waiting to hear back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Video of attack at Gaston County school goes viral. What district says happened next
A video of a Gaston County Schools student hitting a classmate is going viral online, and the district says it took disciplinary action after the incident. The video posted Wednesday depicts a student at Ashbrook High School swinging and hitting another student in the back of the head and neck area, before getting up and continuing to throw punches. The victim falls out of his seat and to the ground while guarding his head and crying loudly. Gaston County Schools confirmed the incident took place Tuesday, that it was aware of the video and informed parents of students involved. 'The school takes this incident seriously; this type of behavior cannot be tolerated at school,' a GCS spokesperson told The Charlotte Observer in an email. 'The school investigated the incident, met with the students' parents, followed its discipline guidelines, and involved the school resource officer/law enforcement. ' The spokesperson said the district can not share or confirm information about the students involved or disciplinary actions taken due student privacy concerns. The video has been shared by several popular right-wing accounts on X, including Libs of Tiktok, which has 4.3 million followers. There, the video has received more than 6 million views. On a Facebook account called Gaston County Scanner Radio, the video has received more than 317,000 views. It was also shared by Michele Morrow, who ran as the Republican nominee for North Carolina superintendent of public instruction in November. 'How many children and staff have to be physically harmed before we press charges and STOP allowing violence and chaos in our classrooms?!' she posted Wednesday on X. The Gaston County Police Department announced Thursday afternoon it investigated the incident and referred it to the NC Department of Juvenile Justice. 'The Gaston County Police takes all incidents of school violence seriously. The full investigation was turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to obtain petitions,' a spokesperson for the department said in a news release. A petition starts a formal court case against a juvenile. Reports of student misconduct increased around the country after the COVID-19 pandemic, but data show violence and crime rates in NC public schools decreased by 7.7% between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Around 77% of public schools in the state reported zero to five acts of school violence last school year. However, instances of assault on school personnel increased between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years.
