A Santa Ynez Valley Union High School (SYVUHS) freshman admitted to a felony charge of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, according to a press release from the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office.
The student, 15, was issued the charge in juvenile court on April 7 following an
April 4 fight on the high school’s campus. The “particularly brutal” fight, as it was described in an open letter from SYVUHS Principal Mark Swanitz, took place between two freshman girls and ended with one of the girls’ arrest.
Swanitz wrote in his letter that upon hearing that students planned to dress in black or white to “choose sides” following the fight, high school administrators pushed to unify the student body and brought law enforcement officers on campus out of caution. In days following the altercation, officers found no weapons and there were no altercations, according to Swanitz’s letter.
In his May newsletter, Swanitz wrote that “significant events in recent weeks have surfaced a number of issues which need to be addressed as we as a student body and staff heal.”
He outlined a list of new approaches he said he plans to take in the 2017-18 school year to help address those issues, including restorative justice, peer mediation, a community resiliency psychology model, the Aeries Loop communication system, and character education.
Restorative justice is a method of discipline in which victims and offenders of violated school rules can meet to discuss accountability and amends, Swanitz wrote.
“Students who violate certain school rules and who recognize the damage caused by their actions will have the opportunity to reduce their disciplinary consequences by making genuine reparations to those they have harmed,” he wrote.
Swanitz continued on to say the peer mediation program is intended “to resolve disputes between teens before they result in events which require adult intervention and discipline.”
He added that the high school’s psychologist would undergo training in community resiliency, a model that focuses on physiological responses to trauma and how to control those responses. In addition, the school would implement a new communication system to improve connection with parents, and it would continue its monthly character education program.
“It is my hope that these changes, along with increased awareness of the issues will help us end the school year in a better place and start next year with the infrastructure to minimize the impact of such issues,” Swanitz’s newsletter said.
The District Attorney’s press release shared no further information on the case because it is a juvenile court matter.
This article appears in Jun 8-15, 2017.