IPS OKs policy to let teachers stop fights

On Thursday morning, a local high school student pleaded guilty in juvenile court to felony battery for beating up another student in a hallway at school.

By Thursday night, the Indianapolis Public School Board had passed a policy allowing teachers to intervene to stop such fights in the future.

The policy was crafted after the school district faced complaints, and concerns about students' safety, after the brutal fight earlier this month in which a male student attacked a female student at Northwest Community High School.

The altercation, which was videotaped by other students, some of whom could be heard laughing in the background, showed a teacher advising the two students to break up their fight but otherwise not getting physically involved. The school district's former policy of not allowing educators to directly intervene in student fights was criticized after the video was posted on the Internet and went viral.

The new policy acknowledges that "there may be occasions in which a staff member must use limited physical force in the supervision of students." Those occasion include preventing a student from injuring himself or herself or others; stopping a student from destroying property belonging to the school district or others; and stopping a student from disrupting an educational function or interfering with a school activity.

The policy also said a staff member should use "no more force than that which is necessary to accomplish the objectives" outlined under those circumstances and is prohibited from using force as a punishment for misconduct.

The board suspended a 30-day period in which it would consider the policy and immediately approved it with a 6-to-1 vote. Board member Gayle Cosby voted against the policy.

Board president Diane Arnold, who voted for the policy, commended IPS for taking swift action on the issue and said it was the best the administration could do.

"There's no easy solutions if children get into a confrontation," she said.

But Rhondalyn Cornett, president of the Indianapolis Education Association, the local union representing teachers, said she wouldn't advise union members to intervene in student fights. She said union members would be encouraged to deflate violent situations — not participate in them.

Cornett also criticized the new policy for being too vague.

According to IPS, the new policy would align it with other Indiana school districts "which have clear policies enabling employees to use their best judgment in supervision and protection. Administrative guidelines would later accompany this broader policy, if approved, to dig deeper into the specifics of various safety scenarios."

In the video, the boy approaches the girl in the middle of a hallway at the school. After a brief exchange of words, the boy punches the girl and sends her back into a row of green lockers. He then throws her to the ground and continues to pummel the student as he stands above her.

A school staff member in a suit can be heard on the video calling out down the hall for someone to call the cops and also can be heard yelling at the boy to stop hitting the girl, but the adult does not physically intervene. The incident, which lasted less than a minute, doesn't end until a handful of other students pull the attacker off the girl.

The state has recommended that the 17-year-old attacker be placed on probation, according to A.J. Deer, a spokesman for the Marion County prosecutor's office. The length of the probation will be discussed during a disposition hearing June 5.

Court documents say a charge of criminal confinement originally filed against the boy has been dismissed, but he was ordered not to have any contact with the girl he assaulted.

Star reporter Justin Mack contributed to this story.

Call Star reporter Kris Turner at (317) 444-6047. Follow him on Twitter: @krisnturner.