Those outraged by the Wellesley Public Schools’ handling of discipline and communication surrounding a violent bullying incident involving students over the summer plan to gather for a peaceful protest at Wellesley High School on Oct. 20 at 7am. The demonstration’s stated purpose is to create awareness around recent incidents of violence, bullying and injustice, and to urge the school administration to take stronger action.
The family whose son was the victim of the attack near Bates Elementary School in mid-July has opened up about the incident over the past week, first during citizen speak at the Oct. 12 Wellesley School Committee meeting, and this week in an interview with WCVB-TV. The student attends Wellesley High, as do some accused of assaulting him.
Among parent Dylan Ade’s complaints is that while Wellesley Public Schools has sent out communications to the school community about other serious incidents, it hasn’t issued any about the one involving his son. “This was more than bullying, this was a beating,” he said at the start of the Oct. 12 School Committee meeting. Administrators “dropped the ball” on this, he said, calling for stricter consequences for students involved and a stronger anti-bullying policy within the school system.
The incident was originally documented in general terms in a Wellesley Police log item.
The school administration issued a statement to WCVB-TV in which it said: “Student safety is always our top priority. We do not tolerate bullying and take reports of any instance very seriously. When we were informed of this situation, we promptly investigated and disciplined the students involved according to state regulations, and safety planning was immediately enacted and remains in place to help ensure that all students feel secure and supported.”
“and safety planning was immediately enacted and remains in place to help ensure that all students feel secure and supported.”?
Well I’d like to see a copy of that safety plan, because currently at least one of the perpetrators shares the class with the victim. Who would be so insensitive as to put them in the same class together?? That doesn’t exactly sound like a safety plan…
All children should feel safe in school. Often the staff are just as responsible for creating toxic and emotionally abusive environments for our children. It has to stop. It significantly impacts the learning process and impacts children who are the target of such bullying for many years following the bullying and coercive events. The abusive behaviors, the covering up of such by students and staff, as well as the Superintendent and the School Committee need to end and there needs to be accountability. Too many young people attend school and it’s to their detriment. It’s shameful.
Those young men should have to address the WHS and speak to their brutal actions against a fellow student. Their high school record should be duly noted and they should have to publicly apologize to Mr. Ade.
What good are new expensive school buildings if the administration allows these students to terrorize a fellow student.? Very sick young men.
I find this incident and the resulting consequences very very sad. How these boys came up with a pre-meditated plan to attack a peer is beyond my understanding. I think the parents of the perpetrators need to really reflect on what they need to do to course correct the vindictive and violent behavior of their sons.
The WPS administration is just not doing enough in this matter. Firstly, I have a child at the high school and I still can’t believe I found out about this incident on the news. Good for the parents of the victim in making this public. Such a brave move to put their family through this. Parents of WHS students hear from the principal about so many incidents and nothing about this? It makes me wonder what else got swept under the rug. Secondly, I’d like to know how re-victimizing the victim every time he has to see these bullies in class or at lunch is an acceptable solution? At a minimum there should be no sports, no bus transportation, and no common classes or lunches with the victim.
Thank you for covering this, Bob. The Ades’ comments to School Committee come at approximately minute 13 of the Wellesley Public Media tape.
When my daughter was bullied at Dover-Sherborn, the only decent thing D-S did was to keep the bully out of all of her classes. It is unfathomable that Wellesley High School has allowed one of the perpetrators to be in the same class as the victim – shameful and dangerous.
Thank you to the Ade family for bringing this up publicly. This is horrifying. I admire Sean for speaking up and wish the best for him moving forward. No child should experience such violence and humiliation without proportional consequences imposed by the school. WHS spends hours of students’ time addressing racist language in Discord. Great. How about addressing the criminal behavior of this abhorrent subgroup of sophomores? One has to assume that the attackers’ families are wealthy enough to convince Wellesley Public Schools that this outrageous incident wasn’t really worth mentioning. Not in Health class? No assembly to address bullying and assault and battery? Not as relevant as hate speech? Drs. Lussier and Chisum, we have to do better. This one is all on you,
As a WHS parent I am sad that it required the Ade’s to do this in order to have their son, the victim, protected. If your child was at this attack your child was involved, if you child did not stop it, they were involved. The only privacy that should have been protected was the victim’s. This should have been addressed the same as the racial incidents we hear about.
WPS has completely over-corrected by focusing solely on DEI initiatives, and ignoring almost everything else’. These kids must be absolutely confused, we have kids who attack kids only to get very mild punishments and others who use racial slurs when they hear nothing but that daily from students who are “allowed” to use those words. We are missing a zero tolerance policy’ at WPS. If you hurt people there are consequences, if anyone uses a racial slur no matter your skin color you are reported. Time to practice what you preach WPS.
The actions by the School Committee, Superintendent Lussier and Principal Chisum are a joke and a disgrace. They continually preach the CARE values but fail to act accordingly when those are violated to the point of felony actions by students. No doubt these people have either cowtowed to the threats of lawsuits by the parents of the kids which assaulted the boy or are trying to brush it under the rug due to personal connections. The school system’s administration, particularly at the top, is a miserable failure.
In all my years as a student and now a parent – sadly, these behaviors seem to rather predictably happen in all communities – and probably especially in well to do communities such as the Wellesleys. It is one side against a well lawyered up other side, and the school system is only there to sweep whatever damage under the rug. A school system like Wellesley, with their “look the other way, let’s not talk about this too much” philosophy, brings about the inevitable – it is not okay to discuss the high pressure resulting in suicides, nor the problem kids who become problem teens, nor how the spoiled act out, nor how the administration fails to listen and bring adequate justice. Why on earth are these bullies and their bully parents protected? Where on earth do you think this behavior is learned? At home, people. At home. It starts and ends at home.
Sean, you are already head and shoulders above each and every one of those who participated in just one chapter of this shameful ongoing saga. Until the wealthy communities’ administration chooses (!!!) to stand up to these bully parents, a community has nothing. You should bare zero shame, Sean. Instead, shame falls on those parents who let this happen, and shame falls on the administration who only reacted with the bare minimum (!!!) required.
Educators should be educating, not enabling. Students have a right to learn in a safe environment. Bullies should rightfully be immediately removed, at the parents expense, and denied privileges (!!!) such as participation in extracurricular activities, and especially sports.
There should not be a question as to who is in the wrong, and who has more rights, and who should be afforded proper protection. Extending equal or better privileges and rights to assailants? Really? Do better, Wellesley and its fellow communities. Do better. Privileges are earned. This is about administrators doing what they should to be doing – not advocating for the assailants, and not the bare minimum.
These other students who participated, and their parents, disgust me for enabling and perpetrating hate and violence in their worlds. They are disturbing, and the lot of them need desperate help. The administrators are absolutely, positively counting on the victims being too embarrassed, humiliated or just plain exhausted to pursue charges. The police are certainly less help than they should be, and the administrators play defense.
People who fail to step up should be relieved of their duties. Our students need to be protected, and parents need to know about the incidents – be it abuse, assault, violent crimes, suicides, and other incidents that occur in well to do communities. Our kids need to be safe.
Our children were bullied by students and staff to the point where I had to remove them. The Superintendent and other staff were responsible for creating a toxic environment for our children which impacted their learning and their safety. The School Committee was banned by the Superintendent from meeting with us to discuss it because the Superintendent tried to covered up the abuse. He fraudulently tried to change the narrative, using the police and any others he could reach in positions of power so as to cover up what was happening. He even used the local paper to manipulate the situation and delegitimize my children. Bullying impacts children for years afterwards and kids remain traumatized even when they start in new schools. Every child deserves to feel safe at school and attending school shouldn’t be to their detriment. People in the school system in Wellesley need to be held accountable, because the bullying by students and staff is not taken seriously and it’s often spun to further victimize those who have been bullied.
Perhaps the parents of the perps should be examined on their methods of child raising that allows physical harm to others as an acceptable behavior.
Bullying hurts everyone: the victim, the bullies, the bystanders, the community.
This is an appalling story of how bad a situation was left to escalate. How was this allowed to get to the point that a teen ended up in the ER while the others ended up in juvenile court?
Schools have anti-bullying policies and procedures in place and there are many questions regarding how these procedures are updated, maintained, and enforced, how the staff is trained and how issues are reported.
With this act of peer violence, these students have crossed a line. They represent a threat not only to fellow WPS students, but potentially to other citizens as well. The superintendent and principal should undertake stronger disciplinary measures to demonstrate that violent acts have serious consequences. If Messrs. Lussier and Chisum lack the moral leadership to address this matter appropriately within the WPS, then they should be replaced by administrators who can. I applaud the Ade family for having the courage to speak out and share their story, but it should not have had to come to that.