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February 1, 2007

4 girls in Woonsocket Middle School brawl expelled

WOONSOCKET — None of the female students involved in last month’s brawl outside Woonsocket Middle School will be allowed to return for the rest of the school year, said School Committee Chairman Marc A. Dubois.

In separate hearings before the School Committee last night, the four girls involved in the Jan. 8 fight were among seven suspended students who were given alternative learning placements within the public school system and out-of-district placements both in the city and outside of the state.

Meanwhile, Supt. Maureen B. Macera is waiting to hear whether the state will provide funding to bring nonviolence training and two streetworkers with the Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence into the middle school to help heal a troubled community and prevent future incidents.

A hearing was not held for a fifth girl involved in the Jan. 8 fight because she and her mother had already moved back to the Dominican Republic, Dubois said.

The seven suspended students -- all in the seventh and eighth grades -- were expelled from the middle school yesterday for exhibiting violent and disruptive behavior in three separate incidents. Two other girls had been suspended for fighting on Jan. 3, and a boy had been caught with a Swiss-Army knife in his sneaker, Dubois said.

“We sent a strong message to the 99 percent good students and to the staff that we’re not going to tolerate this kind of behavior,” he said.

-- Journal staff writer Kia Hayes

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 5:20 PM | Permalink

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