Just as an emotion-packed, three-hour school board meeting in Rush-Henrietta Tuesday night appeared to reach its end, Emily Lamica stepped forward to the microphone.
As she spoke, two dozen students slowly rose from chairs scattered around the high school cafeteria to stand by their teacher. It was Lamica's classroom that became the scene of a fight that left one student hospitalized and sent the school into a 40-minute lockdown Sept. 24.
But Lamica wasn't there that day. She was out sick, getting X-rays for an injury after a different fight broke out in her classroom earlier in the week.
Students, teachers and parents say the district has enabled an increasingly destructive culture at the high school by failing to adequately discipline students
who repeatedly break school rules. They described drug use inside school bathrooms, students roving in hallways and a series of violent fights throughout the first month of school.
And they accused Superintendent Barbara Mullen of downplaying the Sept. 24 incident, initially calling it an "altercation" and reporting Monroe County Sheriff's deputies were on campus "out of an abundance of caution."
Mullen and the school board did not respond to comments throughout the tense meeting, but said there will be a chance for two-way dialogue at a community safety forum Sept. 30.
Rush-Henrietta student: 'We warned you what could happen'
Dozens of students Tuesday night testified.
School officials have said the fight was pre-arranged and started after one student let another into the building who was not permitted to be on campus that day. The fight triggered a lockdown after one staff member thought they heard a gunshot. Police intervened and later confirmed there were no weapons involved, but one student suffered a serious head injury.
The rest of the school was locked in dark classrooms with little information about what was happening.
In a letter to the board, one student described being swept from the windowed cafeteria to a basement room and told they "would have to make a run for it ... and to keep running without looking back." Speaking through tears, another student recounted hearing shouting and loud footsteps in the hallway while an unknown adult banged on an outside door to the school.
Others said they sent what they thought might be goodbye messages to loved ones, afraid there was a gunman in the building. After the lockdown was cleared, students said they were told to head to their next class with no explanation of what happened as disturbing rumors started to spread. Many said the school no longer feels safe.
Mariana Albino-Toro, a senior, said she and others confronted the board over poor disciplinary practices last year.
"It should not take a violent event to get your attention," she said. "We warned you what could happen if this problem wasn't addressed and you didn't listen."
Rush-Henrietta will continue fight talks Wednesday
For her part, Lamica said she was moved to speak by the strength shown by her students during the meeting. She said the inaction by administrators has only punished the broader school community.
"A very small few have decided that they will come in, go disrupt, go smoke in the bathroom, host a fight in any given room that these students deserve not only to learn in, but they teach in," she told the board. "They teach us. They have taught you tonight. They have taught me tonight. They deserve so much better and that starts by looking at that few."
― Kayla Canne covers community safety for the Democrat and Chronicle with a focus on immigration, police accountability, government surveillance and how people are impacted by violence. Follow her on Instagram @bykaylacanne. Get in touch at kcanne@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: 'We warned you.' Students confront Rush-Henrietta board
