OXFORD – With the arrest of four students and two parents in the last few weeks, the Oxford Academy School District has seen a sharp increase in the number of crimes taking place on school property.
Between March 20 and April 3, two of the students, a 16 and 17-year-old, were charged with harassment over fighting. Another 16-year-old was charged with harassment for allegedly bullying another student, and a 13-year-old middle school student was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana.
In the unconnected incidents, each student was also suspended from class for five days, according to a statement released by the Oxford Police Department.
Two parents were also arrested, 51-year-old Susan J. Mackney and 55-year-old Alexis A. Kaminski, both of Oxford. Kaminski was charged with second degree harassment after he allegedly threatened a teacher with physical violence. Mackney was arrested for making threats to a teacher and charged with second degree harassment and second degree aggravated harassment. Mackney allegedly exchanged numerous e-mails with a teacher since February which initially began as a dialogue over a complaint with the school but became increasingly confrontational.
The alleged threats took place on April 3, the same day that the nationally reported shooting rampage in Binghamton left 14 people dead.
Police said that neither parent made direct threats against a single teacher, but claimed that the two had alluded to the use firearms.
Both of the accused parents addressed the teachers after allegations that their child had been harassed at the school.
In a separate incident, the parent of a student who was beaten in one of the harassment cases, said she had contacted police after failing to make headway with school officials. The parent gave permission to publish her name, but it is being withheld by The Evening Sun in order to protect the identity of the victim. The mother said her teen child had been attacked twice since February, once at the Broome-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) campus and once at Oxford High School.
The Chenango County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that an Oxford High School student was arrested in the BOCES incident.
“They go to school every day and they’re trying to get an education and they’ve got to put up with harassment. It drives me insane because no one seems to know what to do about it,” said the mother.
First Assistant District Attorney Stephen M. Dunshee covers Oxford Town and Village Court for the DA’s office. He said he handles about one case a month involving a student being arrested as a result of an incident that transpired during school hours.
“It’s not that uncommon really, but to have more than three or more (incidents) in one week is certainly something I’d call very unusual,” he said.
The Oxford Academy School District elected to hold a special lock down drill at its middle school building April 10 in light of the recent rise in school violence and threats.
The Oxford Police Department was on hand to evaluate the school’s performance.
“After a few threats were received to the school and after the shooting incident in Binghamton, we thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone what to do in case of an emergency,” said Oxford Police Chief Richard Nolan.
Superintendent Randall Squier said that a state trooper, known as a resource officer, rotated between the two buildings every week and served as a liaison between law enforcement and school administration on how to handle discipline.
“Every incident is taken on its own merits, there is no cut and dry rule on how to handle each case. Our first responsibility it to maintain a safe environment by enforcing the code of conduct. If students, or anyone else, can’t adhere to the code of conduct, then we will do whatever we need to do to ensure student and employee safety,” said Squier.
Squier said often incidents involving an arrest were brought to law enforcement’s attention by the parents of the victim after school hours. However, he explained, whenever illicit drugs were uncovered, the school contacted law enforcement.
“We don’t have the authority or means to destroy or hold illegal drugs,” he said.
In the recent arrests, police were contacted by parents in the three cases involving harassment charges while the district contacted officials over the drug possession and parent-to-teacher threats.
“From time to time disputes occurr between students and their families and they are brought into our school,” said Squier, who explained that a number of the incidents began off school property and were further dramatized by students and parents harboring personal resentment toward each other.
One of the mothers of the accused teens appeared in Oxford Village Court last week and asked the judge how she could get another student arrested. The judge declined to answer the question.
The superintendent said he had no reasonable explanation for the surge in school-related arrests and said the incidents were not connected to one another.
“There are no days off in March. That’s a long stretch of time and can be a struggle for some students. They have to be here and some of them don’t like each other very much. It’s an interesting dynamic in schools during this time of the year, between winter and spring, a sort of cabin fever where you’ll seen a spike in discipline issues,” he said.
The superintendent said the district would schedule additional lock down drills and hopes the routine will become as common as fire drills.
“Unfortunately, when you hear the word ‘lock down,’ it makes people tense. We hope that, with practice, they’ll become second nature just like the fire drills,” he said.