Police Chief: Arrests Have "Trended Downward" at Manchester High School Since Brawl

Manchester Chief of Police Marc Montminy told the Board of Education Monday that arrests appear to have declined at Manchester High School since a broke out in December, while school administrators outlined changes to the high school’s security protocols that they said have made a significant difference in safety and discipline.

“Three months may be too short a time frame in which to make a direct comparison, but things have certainly trended downward in terms of in-school arrests” Montminy told the Board of Education as part of its meeting Monday.

Montminy said that only 14 arrests have been made at the high school since the start of the school year, mostly for breach-of-peace-type offenses, and that two of the arrests were not directly tied to school activities. This is in contrast to information that was released at the end of last year that detailed at Manchester High School between Aug. 15 and Dec. 31, including 18 as part of a large fight that broke out in a first floor hallway of the high school on Dec. 16.

Although Superintendent of Schools Kathleen Ouellette never stipulated the reason she placed several weeks after the incident, it was largely believed to be tied to the school’s numerous disciplinary offenses. Ouellette named , a veteran educator and administrator in the Plainville School District, as interim principal for the remainder of the school year Feb. 7.

Director of Pupil Personnel Services Shelly Matfess said that none of the students involved in the Dec. 16 incident would be returning to the high school for the remainder of the school year.

School administrators and officials also stressed a ramped up effort on discipline as part of the changeover, and detailed many of those changes to the school board Monday night.

Some of the changes at the high school since the incident took place include:

-       All entrances to the building are now locked at 7:30 a.m. and require a buzzer for access.

-       25 additional two-way radios were purchased since December.

-       School bathrooms are now inspected every 90 minutes.

-       The addition of 62 security cameras in the school is planned.

-       The school has added a “time out” room for students who have disciplinary problems in class.

-       Sgt. Keith Dunnigan of the Manchester Police Department, supervisor of the school resource officers, is now stationed at Manchester High School.

But when asked by members of the school board, Montminy stopped short of saying that the high school had reversed its high trend of arrests, saying that it was too short of a timeframe in which to compare data and make any assessments.

“You have to compare the same period from two different years in order to get an assessment of if things are up or down,” Montminy said. “Right now the trend looks good. I just think we need more months of data to determine if it’s a glitch or a permanent downward trend.”

School administrators presented data that showed that cell phone usage among seniors, unexcused activities in hallways and suspensions were trending downward as well.

“I think that Manchester High School is ready to move on,” said Ziogas, the school’s interim principal, adding that there were many students at the high school who were frustrated or dissatisfied with the negative publicity the school has received since the December incident.

Two such students’ were Ryan Dube, a sophomore, and Tricia Goode, a junior, both members of the high school’s broadcast journalism class, who produced a video on daily life at the high school since the Dec. 16 brawl that was shown as part of the presentation. The video included interviews from several MHS students, none of whom were indentified, including one who participated in the Dec. 16 fight, and detailed their reactions to the negative publicity the school has received since as well as what goes on at the school on a daily basis.You can watch the video . 

“People wanted to know what it was like now,” since the fight, Dube said.  “We wanted to show everybody that it’s still a good place to go to school.”

Afterward, when asked about the difference in the school environment between December and now, Dube said it was noticeable.

“Since the actual event took place, when you walk through the hallways, we can really see the changes that the administration has made for us,” he said. “And that’s because they listened and incorporated a lot of the suggestions that students had in mind.”