Five students at the M. Clifford Miller Middle School in Lake Katrine were transported to HealthAlliance Hospital on Friday afternoon, March 3, due to exposure to what the district believes was pepper spray.
Following a brief lockdown and investigation at the school, schools superintendent Paul Padalino said the situation had been resolved and that the incident, while unfortunate and dangerous, was not malicious. Padalino added that one of the five girls exposed to the inflammatory agent had brought it to school and that the situation appears to have stemmed from a collective curiosity. The incident happened when the spray was released and blown back in their faces during recess, causing stinging and redness of the eyes and skin.
“The girls were together on this,” Padalino said in an interview. “They weren’t spraying it at another kid or anything like that. I don’t know if they just wanted to see what it was like, but it wasn’t used in an altercation or used as a weapon.”
But, Padalino added, even though it wasn’t intended to harm it was still a violation of school rules.
“It could have affected more in that play area should have other students were exposed,” Padalino said.
In a message posted to the Kingston school district website, Padalino said that Friday’s incident followed other behavioral concerns earlier in the school year, and asked for help from parents and guardians to try and prevent further occurrences from happening.
“Please note that this incident comes amid numerous other behavioral situations involving safety that have occurred over the last several weeks,” Padalino said. “This behavior cannot continue. The allocation of school, law enforcement, and community resources needed in these situations often seriously interferes with our ability to effectively achieve our mission — to educate your children. We are once again asking caregivers to please speak with their children and ensure they understand the seriousness of these situations and the severity of consequences that they will experience if they partake in these poor decisions.”
Later Friday afternoon, Padalino disclosed that the previously reported incidents consisted of threats scrawled on bathroom walls of the school, one before the winter break and another shortly after.
He added that the district was nearing completion of an informational packet for parents and guardians about disruptive incidents.
“We’re just putting together a whole crisis response action and drills information packet for parents packet about some of the stuff the kids are doing that’s creating havoc,” Padalino said. “There’s some kid writing with a pencil on the wall, ‘I’m gonna shoot up the school,’ and we have three-quarters of the [Town of] Ulster Police Department, if it’s Miller [Middle School], or the Kingston Police Department if it’s at [J. Watson] Bailey [Middle School] or Kingston High.”
Incidents like the threats about school shooting or the release of pepper spray can have a ripple effect, Padalino said. “Kids are scared, teachers are scared, the administration is spending all their time chasing down camera pictures to see who went in and out of the bathroom, and we’re supposed to be educating kids,” Padalino said. “Law enforcement is getting frustrated, We’re getting frustrated. And we really need parents to help us out and communicate with their students.”
Responses from parents to disruptive incidents in schools varies.
“I get calls of people saying, ‘How come there’s not metal detectors in those schools?’ and ‘We need police in every school,” Padalino said. “And then other people who are saying these situations aren’t because kids are inherently violent, it’s because there is a mental-health crisis and the students are going through things and families are going through things, and ‘What are we going to do to support the families outside of just throwing the kids out out of school?’”
Padalino said that the district has been focusing on social and emotional learning, and that there are mental-health resources available, including an in-school clinic at Miller Middle School.
He added that there were also resources available for parents and guardians. “One of our goals here is to make sure that we’re communicating this to families so they know we’re here, use these resources if you need it,” Padalino said. “And maybe that would be part of helping to avoid these types of incidents.”
In his message on the district website, Padalino said the district was already planning to add a pair of monitors to its middle schools, and would speak to the district’s students as well.
“The Kingston City School District and our school staff work hard to provide a safe learning and working environment every day,” Padalino said. “At this week’s board of education meeting, the addition of two new monitors at each of our middle-school buildings was approved to act as deterrence and to help ensure overall good conduct throughout the buildings. We are also working with our coordinator of school safety to develop additional steps to help students more fully understand the impact of poor decisions. Reinforcing the importance of good behavior and choices at home is essential.”
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