Another day, another fight at Albemarle High School (AHS).

While most such incidents are suppressed by Albemarle County Public Schools’ (ACPS) administration, occasionally, the truth gets out.

This fight took place in the hallway of Albemarle County High School leading into the cafeteria, at approximately 12:55 PM on December 14.

Eyewitnesses report that the brawl was instigated by one student possibly throwing a sandwich at another student.

Following the altercation, principal, Darah Bonham, berated students via the public address system. Seemingly blaming the entirety of the student body for this chaos, the principal punished all by eliminating the daily 10-minute afternoon break for the foreseeable future.

Subsequent to the removal of School Resource Officers (police) from all Albemarle County Government Schools—by Superintendent Matt Haas and the Albemarle County School Board— such incidents have skyrocketed.

Chaos and violence, sadly, have become de rigueur in ACPS, contrary to the deceiving public lies of the administrators.

UPDATE: 12/15/2022 6:46 AM

Principal Bonham issued the following email statement to AHS families:

From: “Notification from Albemarle High School” 
Sent: Wed, Dec 14, 2022 at 8:52 PM
Subject: Important Message From the Principal

Dear AHS Students and Families,
 
I am writing this message to make you aware of an incident that occurred in the building today.  Toward the end of the lunch block, there was an altercation involving several students outside of the café.  Staff members responded quickly to the incident; however, it  caused conversation and concern among some students and staff afterward.  I addressed students and staff via the PA system to inform everyone, state the seriousness of the situation, and reinforce expectations regarding behavior.  My administration will be investigating and following up with appropriate school and division level consequences for those who were involved in this incident. 
 
I want you to know that safety is our top priority, and we will take extra steps to ensure that students feel safe in their learning environment, including consistent, and extra adult presence in our hallways over the next couple days.  It is understandable that students may be upset about the situation today and we will provide counseling support tomorrow through the counseling office for any student who wants to speak with a counselor or staff member.
 
Tomorrow ACPS is on a 2-hour delay, and we will be providing a detailed schedule for you in the morning.  Please do not hesitate to reach out to me, one of the other administrators, and/or another AHS staff member for assistance.
 
Darah Bonham, Principal

 

 

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14 COMMENTS

  1. “You can take a monkey out of the jungle but you can’t take the jungle out of the monkey”.
    Latarian Johnson:”It’s fun to do hoodrat stuff”
    If there is no consequence for bad behavior what incentive to these hoodrats have to behave?

  2. Can y’all folks spot trying to put the blame on the black men you can obviously see the kid grabbing there friend and they was jumping in to help the kid that was choking the boy on the ground yall people need to stop judging a book by its color #BLACKLIVESMATTER

  3. Looking at Bill Baily’s comment tells me what I need to know about this audience. The nature of the report is also a good indicator. Your ignorance is showing. Firstly, the altercation was likely one between rival groups, and possible gang related. Secondly, the elimination of the short break following lunch was in the in the interest of student and staff safety, not punishment.
    Reducing the opportunity for the groups to engage in further violence and getting uninvolved students safely into classrooms if another fight break out was a wise decision except, perhaps, to those juvenile minds and those who think of our youth as monkeys and hoodrats. Just in case you haven’t realized it, chaos and violence have become part of everyday life in this country. A fine example of that occurred on January 6, 2021. How do you expect kids to respect the rule of law when so many adults refuse to do so, including the President of the United States.

  4. Referring to the kids as animals is offensive and ridiculous. The point of this article is to show that the school does not have control of their students. Punishing the mass group by taking away an incentive of a 10 minute break is not fair to the hundreds of other students who are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do. Why doesn’t the administration remove students who behave this way from the school long-term if not permanently? As long there is a lack of consequences, this kind of behavior will continue. It is also extremely concerning that administrators have to jump in and break up fights like this because of the removal of the school resource officers. No teacher is trained for or should have to put themselves in danger when there are people whose job it is to mitigate these types of situations. Their presence also is intended to deter students from fighting etc. It’s not complicated. It was made so by the poor management of the school board and administration.

  5. For the record please don’t refer to these children as animals the children are not animals and they don’t come from a harsh background either. In fact they are students that are new to this area, with high standards set for themselves they grades speak for itself.what’s disturbing is The student support staff allowed this situation to happen they were all present before it began and no one attempted to stop it.This could’ve easily been prevented the News only put out this video but it’s way more to this story and what they are indicating my question is where it’s the other videos?? those needs to be posted too for the defense of these young black men,better yet why weren’t the school cameras working properly,Albermarle county staff failed to do their jobs as to what happened and why this occurred.They only put out half of the story to make themselves look good but in reality they just as bad as the kids how y’all want the kids to follow the rules when the adults don’t follow the rules you have to lead by example and clearly not one staff did that!

  6. Does anyone moderate the comments here? Are blatantly racist comments merely tolerated? Or are they welcomed and encouraged?

  7. My goodness! You’re only seeing what they want you to. The school has cameras, ask them to show what really happened, it wasn’t the black kids this time, they tried to walk away, but (but of course it’s so much easier to blame them because that’s what they do. Right) SMH. From my understanding this could have been easily defused the staff was there from the beginning!

  8. Disagreements and fights are all gonna happen. With the way society acts today it’s no wonder. There is no problem solving or conflict resolution being used. It’s all black and white now. These kids are a direct result of our inability to spend time with them and teach them that not everything is a fight. We have grown adults laying in the middle of the road crying and screaming because their candidate for President didn’t win. We have a former President that won, served in office and is still being harassed by the opposing party.We have citizens fthat feel the need to fight for fair treatment from police officers. They end up burning down their own neighborhoods then cry to everyone to rebuild it. It’s not going to get better unless we show them there are other ways to resolve issues.

  9. For all of you who want to jump on the “racism” bandwagon about my response it is clear that you are younger and have not heard all the phrases i have heard in my lifetime. It does not refer to black people, it refers to out of control people who are not taught to behave at home and are never punished… for misbehavior in the schools. In my day if you misbehaved in school you were sent to the principals office and got a paddling.
    You clearly “see what you want to see” if it fits your “victimhood” narrative by labeling someone a “racist” to shut them up.
    I would suggest that instead of being “offended” (remember the old saying…”sticks and stones”…)
    you might put people in charge of the schools that will maintain a good learning environment.
    Your comments are in defense of these “young men”…and i see nothing regarding all the innocent boys and girls who want to go to school and learn but are put in danger by these out of control “youths”.
    Your anger at me is misplaced. If you would put as much passion and anger in letters to the school or at school board meetings in an effort to help these children your efforts and time would be better well spent then trying to shame me. Your hypocrisy is duly noted….

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