HANK GUO

Led by Families Against Bullying, students and parents protest outside of the high school to protest how incidents of bullying are handled at the high school. Photo Courtesy of the Swellesley Report.

Over the summer, a sophomore from the high school was lured into the wood surrounding Bates Elementary School, where he was beaten, spitten on, and urinated on by five other students from the high school. 

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On the morning of October 20, parents and students gathered outside of the high school to protest the district’s inaction over this institute. 

Parents and students held posters and signs with messages such as, “Support the victim. Not the bullies”, “WPS: Your silence is loud”, and “Families against bullies”. News stations were positioned around the peaceful protest, covering the event. 

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Many felt angry with the district’s response to the bullying and attack that occurred over the summer. 

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“I think that the administration doesn’t do a good job of addressing any forms of bullying here. These ridiculous, canned responses about how ‘this goes against our core values’, but at this point, I don’t know what the core values are. It’s time for Dr. Lussier to acknowledge that the core values are nothing more than things on paper,” said Christina Horner, a Wellesley resident who attended the protest.

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The district administration has been accused of undermining the severity of the bullying incident by not punishing the perpetrators enough. Many parents and students feel that the district has not been making a significant effort to prevent incidents  like this from happening in the future.

“They’re trying to push it under the rug, and they said it was just a ‘small mistake’. I wasn’t jumping kids and beating them up and peeing on them and calling it a ‘small mistake’. We all know that’s not a mistake. That’s a pretty bad thing to do,” said Ishan Kundu ’23.

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Through the protest, parents hope the school will take more action in creating a safer environment for all students at the high school. They hope that the school administration will step up to address the concerns of parents and students. 

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“The most important thing is we want children to feel safe coming to school and just being around town. There should be consequences for their actions. What the school didn’t do is an issue and hopefully they’ll change going forward,” said the father of the victim. 

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However, the protesters want more than justice for the perpetrators of this incident. They hope that their action will also change the way bullying is handled in general by the school administration.

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“It’s [bullying] most definitely been happening with other people, they just haven’t spoken out about it because there hasn’t really been a safe place to talk about it before. Now that we’re changing that, it’s going to be easier for people to come out about what they’ve gone through and I’m always open to talking to anybody about it and I will keep it anonymous. I’ll try to help as much as I can,” said the victim in an interview with The Bradford.

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At a recent school committee meeting, representatives of the Wellesley public schools, from the elementary schools to the high school, reiterated the responsibilities of the school to protect students from bullying, punish those responsible, and prevent such issues in the future.

David Lussier, the district superintendent, started by emphasizing the importance of maintaining the privacy of students and reiterating the complexities teachers and administrators face when tackling an incident of this magnitude. 

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“It’s important to know from the outset that we will not be talking about any individual situations. Rather, we will be focusing on what our bullying policy in general looks like in WPS,” said Lussier. 

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Afterwards, the principals of the different schools talked about their similar approaches to handling and preventing incidents of bullying, with Dr. Jamie Chisum speaking about the high school, Dr. Mark Ito speaking about the middle school, and Mr. Gerardo Martinez of Schofield and Ms. Toni Jolley of Bates speaking about the elementary schools. 

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In the meeting, many Wellesley residents spoke out in defense of the administration by speaking to the character of the principals at the middle and high school. 

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“I can confidently, wholeheartedly, and without reservation state that these [Dr. Chisum, Dr. Ito, and Mr. Martinez] are good, smart, and deeply caring people who educate and care for our children with their very best interests in mind” said Joelle Reidy, a parent and school committee member. 

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Some speakers felt that although the school mishandled elements of the incident, it is more important to move forward together to create a safer, more unified space for their children. 

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“Perhaps the schools could have handled aspects of these incidents differently, but let us recognize that we are still in the midst of a pandemic. Let us recognize that schools across our state and across the country are embroiled in these hard conversations about the very same errors that we are struggling with here in Wellesley,” said Reidy. “The constant stream of vitriol and hate that is pulsing through our community must end… We must move collaboratively in the spirit of improvement. These are certainly challenging times, but we must figure out how to start having dialogues that are constructive and move in a direction of unity.”