Two incidents at Fitchburg High School raise concerns

FITCHBURG — Two incidents at Fitchburg High Schools this week have sparked concern among parents and others online, though school officials say they were isolated incidents and they are working to investigate what happened.

“I can confirm that an incident occurred (on Monday) at Fitchburg High School involving a student and a staff member,” said Superintendent Jonathan Thompson in an email response to questions about the matter. “The district is continuing to investigate the incident. Due to student privacy requirements and the confidentiality of personnel matters, we are limited in the details we can share regarding specific individuals or any potential personnel actions.”

“Regarding [Wednesday’s] incident, I can confirm that a physical altercation occurred between  students at Fitchburg High School,” Thompson said. “The school was briefly placed in lockdown as a precautionary measure to allow staff to safely escort the students involved and protect their privacy. The lockdown lasted only a few minutes.

“I also want to clarify that reports of a stabbing are false. No stabbing occurred,” he said.

“The safety and well-being of our students and staff remain our highest priorities, and we take all incidents of this nature seriously,” Thompson said.

Fitchburg High School Principal Matt Lamey sent out a notice to parents online, stating that the school is “actively reviewing the circumstances surrounding what took place,” on Wednesday.

“Please know that the safety and well-being of our students and staff remain our highest priorities. We take incidents of this nature seriously and are following established procedures to review what occurred and determine appropriate next steps.”

Rumors swirled online about the details of both incidents and people said that students walked out over Monday’s incident to support the staff member involved, though that could not be confirmed.

But one commenter said in part, “My son is a junior at FHS … I too would love to know what’s actually going on.”

Another said, “Believe it or not MOST kids at FHS want a safe and healthy learning environment. … The students are sick of the same kids causing issues.”