WEBSTER, N.Y. — Webster parents are seeking answers, after a student fight sent the Willink Middle School into a lockdown. It happened Tuesday morning just before 9 a.m.
Police Chief Dennis Kohlmeier said no injuries or arrests were reported. But one student was aggressive toward officers attempting to intervene. Kohlmeier said the fight started after two students were texting, and the texts escalated to physical conflict.
Aimee Cranston’s sixth grader was in class when the lockdown happened. She said the class had a substitute teacher at the time, and the protocols for lockdown weren’t really clear.
Cranston said it was scary for her sixth grader, who was confused about what was going on. She said students were heard crying from other rooms, and thuds on lockers sounded like they could’ve been gunshots.
This just made a stressful situation worse for her son, Cranston said.
Footage of the fight has been circulating on the internet, alarming parents like Cranston. Parents were worried a student came from outside the middle school.
The school didn’t clarify if all parties in the fight were from Willink, but said in a letter to parents that no one “outside the district” was involved.
Cranston said security is lighter in the morning before school starts, which worries her.
She’s been contacting the school for answers — asking questions like, what’s the punishment for this kind of behavior, if there’s a no-tolerance policy?
“I can’t remember the last time my son was in a lockdown drill, to be honest with you, and I personally never received any response from the school,” Cranston said.
News10NBC has reached out to the district for comment but has yet to receive a response.
Meanwhile, Principal Brian Powers said in the letter to parents, there are established spaces for students needing additional assistance post-incident. Powers said in the letter, the lockdown was the most appropriate course of action for the situation at hand, adding the school regularly practices through drills during the year.
“I just think Webster owes the parents, like, a detailed explanation. Every time an incident happens — and there’s been several, over the 25 years I’ve been in the district as a parent of five children — the letters are very generic and very pre-written, and very vague,” said Cranston.
Kohlmeier told News10NBC on Thursday, he wasn’t aware of a student entering from outside the middle school.
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