BELLEVILLE -- While parents and others had mixed reactions to Belleville Township High School District 201's unanimous decision to expel two Belleville West students involved in an attack on a school bus last week, all agreed officials still have issues to address.
"I hope that this sends a very, very clear message that this type of conduct has never been tolerated and will never be tolerated," board President Curt Highsmith said. "Kids deserve the right to get an education, to go to school, to feel safe. ... We will work to the ends of the earth to ensure this."
The board voted to expel both students involved in an attack on another student for the remainder of the 2009-10 school year and the entire 2010-11 school year, the maximum amount of time allowed by state law. During that time, the two students are not allowed to attend or participate in school activities.
"I think it's on the mark," West Principal Bob Dahm said of the decision.
Board member Kurt Schroeder called the attack the most egregious act he has seen in his 10 years as a board member.
"I think the board needs to send a message to all our students that we're simply not going to tolerate this type of behavior," he said.
The board also approved a motion by its vice president, Judy Cates, to have the Belleville West administration review the security video of the attack again and discipline "each and every student" who in any way participated, including in egging-on the attack.
"I believe every student on that bus who refused to sit down or participated in that event should be suspended immediately," Cates said.
West parent Karen Coleman took issue with Highsmith's comment about the board's commitment to students' right to an education.
"How is the expelling them for two years committing to their education?" she asked.
Another woman, Tami Graham, said she isn't concerned about the expelled students' education. "I care about the children that are there that act appropriately," she said.
Coleman and Graham were among about 50 people who attended the meeting Monday. Several more who had submitted requests to address the school board passed when called on. Belleville police officers provided security at the meeting. There were no reports of problems.
Highsmith appointed board members Shelley Schaefer and Kurt Schroeder to form a special committee devoted to addressing the concerns parents voiced at the meeting.
The security video, which drew national attention, shows two students attacking another on a bus Sept. 14. Coleman's 15-year-old daughter, Deborah, is a friend of the second attacker caught on the video.
"He was wrong, but I think the punishment doesn't fit the crime at all," she told a reporter. "I think suspension is enough. They've ruined these kids' chances of really doing anything else."
The two teens expelled have been charged with felonies in the attack: A 14-year-old has been charged with three counts of aggravated battery, and a 15-year-old has been charged with two counts of aggravated battery and a misdemeanor property damage charge.
The 14-year-old was arrested Friday and held in the county Juvenile Detention Center during the weekend. St. Clair County Associate Judge Walter Brandon released the boy to his father Monday. The boy was ordered to remain on 24-hour curfew except for "educational and evaluation purposes."
The 15-year-old was not in custody Monday afternoon and did not appear before Brandon.
Neither of the students, the victim nor their parents addressed the board at the meeting.
Several parents told the board that the school has a problem with bus overcrowding, bullying and gang activity.
Some who spoke also called for parents to get involved in the discussion on how to keep the school's students safe.
Some expressed support for the district's response.
A representative of the Belleville Federation of Teachers read a statement. "We feel they have acted rationally and professionally with the best interest of the students at heart," it read.
While she waited for the board meeting to start, Cindy Broyles, the mother of two Belleville West students, said she thinks the bus driver should have intervened. She said that if bus companies don't want their drivers to try to stop fights, they should be allowed to intervene in some way, such as pulling the bus over and calling for help.
"It's been my experience that a real bully at heart is a coward and when confronted will back down," she said.
The driver is no longer allowed to drive for the district, but his employer, First Student Inc., has said he followed the correct procedure and will keep his job.
In the video recording of the attack, the bus driver can be heard yelling at the students to "sit down" and using a radio to report a fight. He did not pull over and kept the bus headed toward school. He could be heard telling a student that a nurse was waiting at the school.
Tabasha Holloman's 15-year-old son was suspended for five days and banned from riding the bus for his first five days back to school because of his behavior during the fight. Holloman, who withheld her son's name, said school officials told her he was "antagonizing the fight" and that he didn't try to stop it.
"I let him know that's not the way you respond," she said, adding that he laughed during the fight. But she doesn't think he should have been suspended.
"He responded like any other teenager would have responded," she said.
Holloman said she wished the school administrators would have had a discussion with her and her son before deciding on the suspension. After she found out about her son's punishment, she said, she requested to see the full video of the fight; she had only seen edited versions through the news media. School leaders told her they would contact the school's attorney and get back to her, she said, and she never heard from them after that.
Several people at the meeting discussed race relations in the city and its role in the attack and the community's response.
Belleville police originally said the attack appeared to be racially motivated but now consider it to be a case of bullying.
The Rev. John Curry, pastor of Conqueror's Christian Center in Belleville and the host of several race relations dialogues in the metro-east, said the attack and the community's response to it is an opportunity for progress.
"Race relations in Belleville is still needed on a major scale," Curry said. "This is the greatest opportunity for the city in a long time to be proactive and move forward. The city has come too far, and there's a lot more work to be done."
Curry, who is black, said the black community's response to the attack is what concerns him most, suspecting it would have been more outraged had the attackers been white and the victim black.
"We should be just as outraged. The whole community should be outraged and trying to support the victim," he said. "Where's the outcry? He's a white kid, but he bleeds too."
Alicia Bradley's 16-year-old son is a junior at Belleville West. She's concerned about the racial tension the bus fight has seemingly stirred.
She questioned the police department's decision to release the video, saying it jeopardized students' safety and affected outsiders' view of the city.
Bradley noticed on blogs and through national media commentators that the incident has sparked reaction from "extremists" on the topic of race, and she thinks that puts Belleville residents' and students' lives in danger.
"The hate that was in those messages was the most unnerving and insecure feeling," she said.
And she said school leaders aren't the only ones that need to address racial tension.
"We need to think about how we can rally our city together, as well," she said.
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