Scared students speak out on violent campus

In the aftermath of a bloody assault in a West Brook bathroom – and little-to-no response from school administrators – students have started speaking out against the “atmosphere of violence” proliferating on the campus, telling district officials and The Examiner, “We’re scared.”

West Brook students completed Day 30 of the 2022-23 school year Sept. 21, and pupils tell The Examiner they’ve already seen “30-40” videos depicting assaults, fights and all-out brawls within their school halls.

“I don’t think it’s ever been this bad before,” said one West Brook senior, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “Coming out of middle school, we knew we had two options: You could go to Kelly, which is where most of my class went, or you could go to West Brook and risk assault.

“You show up, and you’re biting your teeth, like, ‘When am I going to get mugged?’ Even before we got there, we knew the reputation.”

The senior said he’s heard violence issues have been present at West Brook for at least a decade, but maintained his belief that it’s never been as prevalent as it is this school year. He’s also seen kids smoking meth and other drugs, as well as all manner of dealing in the bathrooms on campus, quipping that the school was like a microcosm of Breaking Bad.

“The line that (administrators) ask us to toe is that it’s gang related and restricted to one subsect of the population,” he said. “The kid that got beat up in the bathroom, the story was that he was mugged – he wasn’t in a gang or anything. They wanted the kid’s phone.

“So many fights stem from people getting mugged for their wallet, but (assailants aren’t) known gang members or anything. It’s more like opportunism.”

The senior said he’s personally witnessed eight or nine fights this year, but has been sent videos for nearly 40 separate fights and assaults, adding, “You’ll hear of two or three fights a day. Even the microscopic amount I’ve seen is still like 30 or 40,” speaking of this year alone.

“The atmosphere of fighting has become so well-established that it’s become a sport,” said the anonymous student.

The Examiner reviewed 22 videos of students in fights or being assaulted over the past two school years. According to the concerned West Brook student, nine occurred this year and only account for approximately less than 10% of the actual number of violent incidents. All but two of the videos showed fights between two students, with a third or fourth occasionally joining. Few videos show teachers or school officials anywhere in sight.

District’s view

In response to the national attention BISD received in the wake of violent West Brook videos circulating the internet, BISD Superintendent Shannon Allen presented a discipline review of the district. She also distanced the district from shouldering responsibility for violence occurring under trustees’ stewardship.

“Today, accountability for the choices students make is continually falling on the school district – even though we don’t raise children,” said Allen at a Sept. 15 meeting.

Safety and security are challenges citizens face at the grocery store, church, mall, etc., Allen asserted. Repeating a common refrain heard from the superintendent during school board meetings, Allen said BISD reflects the Beaumont community at large, summing, “Everybody in this community is teaching the children something; you’re teaching them something.”

Allen eventually turned the spotlight to Executive Director of Student Support Randy Maxwell, who displayed discipline data in the wake of West Brook violence. Maxwell compared the number of so-called “mutual combat” fights to the number of students enrolled in all of BISD total, rather than just on the campus in question.

Chart 1.1 displays this year’s nine most common referrals. However, instead of showing how many violations have occurred, BISD decided to show a particular infraction’s percentage compared to all possible referral types. For instance, “insubordination” is shown to comprise 7.2% of all refferals this year, while “fighting” and “one-sided” hitting only make up 5.1% and 3.5%, respectively.

“I thought it was important because there is a lot of concern; there is a lot of talk about fighting. So, I said, ‘Let’s look at it historically,’” he said. “In 2017, we had 696 fights and had 20,197 students,” saying that means only 3.4% of all BISD students – elementary to high school – had been in a fight in the 2017-18 school year.

West Brook students who spoke to The Examiner questioned BISD’s data, saying the school likely fails to count each act of violence occuring on campus.

“The administration’s definition of a fight isn’t the traditional definition, so maybe that’s why their count would be lower,” said one student. “I think they count the larger incidents that require police. We hear from the administration that there’s only been like seven or eight fights this year, but we have that in a week – that’s nothing.”

“They haven’t acknowledged that fight to the students of West Brook at all,” he said of the viral bathroom assault video. “There hasn’t been any direct reassurance to us.”

The student did say that administrators and teachers have been more strict about cellphone use this year, saying instructors have been more inclined to confiscate them this year because “they are the means by which the fights are being recorded.”

Students say West Brook administrators haven’t changed any procedures regarding bathrooms, despite the violence and drug deals occuring there.

West Brook Principal Nicholas Phillips, who didn’t appear at the Sept. 15 meeting, hasn’t spoken about fighting or discipline issues at the campus. In addition to being employed by BISD, Phillips serves as trustee at Nederland Independent School District – where he also resides. He also serves as a director for TASB (Texas Association of School Boards).

Maxwell revealed that administrators have caught 200 students fighting in the first 30 days of school – even despite the district’s diminishing population, which has shrunk by approximately 3,500 pupils over the past five years. A 2021-22 survey of BISD behavior intervention specialists conducted on students caught fighting revealed that 0% were the result of bullying and personal issues – yet another point West Brook students refuted.

The behavior intervention study is also refuted by a Jefferson County Juvenile Probation Department investigation into a 2021 assault videoed in a hall at West Brook High School. According to a memorandum sent to the student’s parents, the juvenile justice center is seeking information that would allow the payment of restitution by the juvenile assailants.

The memorandum, which came one year and three days after the assault, asks the victim to detail “damages, loss or medical bills.”

“How do you put a number on being traumatized?” wondered the victim’s mother.

Lack of tracking at BISD PD

The Examiner filed an information request with BISD on Sept. 15, requesting the number of felony and misdemeanor cases the district police have referred to the Jefferson County District Attorney for prosecution. Sept. 20, a lawyer representing BISD told the publication that data wasn’t something district police tracked annually.

“I spoke with Chief (Joseph) Malbrough, and the issue is their current software they use cannot generate this type of report,” said Kendra Walters, an attorney for Karczewski, Bradshaw, Spalding (KBS) Law Group. “They can’t just run a report for referred cases and it spit out a report or a number. I asked if there was any other systems in place, like written documents, and there wasn’t really a uniform system in place that would have that specific information.”

When asked if the BISD PD keeps an annual count of criminal cases they refer to the local DA, BISD’s legal representative said, “No, unfortunately not. They are in the process of updating their software system, and, hopefully, that’s something they can do in the future.”

Walters said the requested information would be a time-consuming, and costly, endeavor to complete, saying it would take a hand review of BISD PD files. As of press time, BISD hadn’t supplied the publication with an estimated cost to complete the inquiry.

The Examiner has also requested the same data from the DA’s office, where employees assured the publication they’d process the inquiry immediately. As of press time, the DA’s office hasn’t produced any data.

Student pleas with trustees

West Brook junior Saifan Panjwani attended the Sept. 15 meeting to tell administrators how scared he is on campus each day.

“To many, the school is supposed to be a safe space, where students should not have to worry about the threat of violence. However, ask any student at West Brook, and they’ll tell you the opposite,” he said. “Violence is rampant within the school. Whether it be the daily fights in the hallways, or lunchroom, or the multiple unreported allegations of weapons on campus, the school is not safe.”

Panjwani suggested hiring more counselors on campus, which he believes would give potentially violent students an outlet to seek in lieu of violence. He thinks increasing staff training on early distress signs would also be of tremendous benefit.

“I’m here to tell you today: I’m scared,” he said. “As a high school student, I shouldn’t feel unsafe at school. In my three years at the school, I’ve never witnessed an act as bad as one I saw last week. I witnessed a student bleeding from his head, unable to walk, after being beaten in the bathroom by another student.

“This outrageous act of violence had me asking myself, ‘What if it had been one of my friends? What if it had been me?’”