On Mar. 16, a video surfaced on Instagram and Tiktok of a fight video involving multiple middle school students at Poinsettia Park in Carlsbad. The Carlsbad Police Department (CPD) and the Carlsbad Unified School District (CUSD) are currently working on ways to combat the situation.
At the recent district board meeting, the video recording of the incident was brought forward for discussion. One of the leaders at this meeting, junior Jackson Luria, and others, brought up the video and proposed what they would do to prevent a similar situation from recurring.
“I think that the schools need to have a different kind of disciplinary system in place,” Luria said. “Less detention may help, not suspension but instead expulsion in certain situations like this one.”
Following the recent incident, there’s been a lot of conversation between teachers, school staff, and parents about updating our school policies. Luria weighed in to share his perspective on what happened.
“The person who was called a racial slur and was hit should not have gotten in trouble for acting in self defense,” Luria said. “It truly is unfortunate that the person who was hit first in the video got the same level of punishment as the other kids.”
At the recent board meeting, ideas were brought up by staff and students on ways to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Some, including Vice Principal Charles Threatt, felt that allowing anonymity for students is necessary to ensuring an environment where they feel safe to communicate with adults.
“I think a big problem is a lot of kids are scared to speak up, and if they do end up telling on someone to another person, they are worried they can get caught up in trouble,” Threatt said. “I think the best system at the end of the day is being able to report things without your name being connected with it whatsoever.”
During the board meeting, Luria contributed a few ideas of his own that he would like to see implemented into the school district. Specifically, he proposed a new peer-mentoring initiative designed to help struggling students improve their academic performance and build confidence.
“I would feel a lot more outgoing and happy towards other people if I had less time sitting in a chair for two hours a day,” Luria said. “I think if we had more of an opportunity to get up and move around and socialize, everyone would have better personal relationships with each other.”
