‘Fight or flight mode’: Irmo students don’t feel safe after fights, shooting, walkout
Students at Irmo High School say they don’t believe the school district is taking their safety concerns seriously after recent sexual assault allegations, fights and a shooting near campus.
Those fears fueled a student walkout on Friday afternoon at the school on St. Andrews Road, when several students rallied outside the school to call for a greater effort to keep them safe, students behind the walkout told The State. Irmo High switched to online classes Monday and Tuesday in response to the safety issues raised by students.
At a school board meeting Monday, Superintendent Akil Ross recognized that more students are exhibiting behavior that needs strong intervention.
“Since COVID, there are more and more students even the school administration is struggling to address,” he said.
Senior Mae Sproul said the main motivation behind the protest was a male student who she said has groped several classmates, seemingly without facing any consequences. Sproul said she and others have reported the student’s behavior, but they don’t feel as if the administration believed them.
“They say, ‘There’s no proof this happened, we can’t do anything,’” Sproul said. “They act like we’re just making it up.”
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department has received five reports of “inappropriate touching” at the high school this school year, including one where three girls and one boy came forward together to allege separate incidents of groping by a fellow student. Because the names of juveniles were redacted from the reports, it’s unclear if all reports relate to one student.
School district officials did not directly respond to questions about the groping allegations. Asked to respond to the students’ concerns, Lexington-Richland 5 school district said in a statement that it “cannot comment on any student-specific information, including discipline matters or enrollment information” but said the district plans to respond to safety concerns at Irmo High, including with an online community forum at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
More students need intervention
Ross said students with greater behavioral problems will be moved to an alternative learning structure within Irmo High School, nicknamed the Nest, beginning Wednesday. There, they can get the greater individual attention they need to learn and thrive, Ross said. The district has found funding for four additional positions to staff the Nest.
Ross said he met with faculty at Irmo High at 8 a.m. Monday, followed by a meeting with the Irmo student government. He said two students shared their “personal stories” around the protest issues, Ross said.
He said the district’s Title IX investigator, tasked with policing sex discrimination in schools, would investigate their claims and any other brought to the district’s attention.
“We take this very seriously,” Ross said. “There will be more investigations that our central office will do... we have a mechanism to provide safety for you,” adding, “I’ll take full responsibility for anything negative on our campus, and I’ll make corrections and put in solutions.”
While saying he can’t provide specific details of individual cases, Ross said, “the student who was brought to our attention is not a student at Irmo High School.”
Meanwhile, a 17-year-old senior, who asked not to be named, told The State that when she defended herself against unwanted touching from another student, she was the one who ended up getting sent home from school. She feels students’ concerns have been summarily dismissed.
”It will lead to worse if nothing is done,” she said, adding that she fears what might happen to her younger sister at Irmo High after she graduates.
Nearby violence
Friday’s walkout came the same week law enforcement stepped up its presence on the Irmo campus after a teenager was shot at a nearby apartment building last Monday. Investigators said they believed the shooting was related to fights on Irmo’s campus.
Fighting has been a concern at Irmo High this year, with 25 assault cases reported last semester to the sheriff’s department, which provides the school with a resource officer. That’s a much higher rate than other Midlands high schools reviewed by The State.
Sproul said Irmo seemed more subdued last year when she moved from Swansea. At that time, the COVID-19 pandemic had reduced the number of students on campus, with many students taking online classes or on alternating schedules.
This year, she said, the atmosphere on campus often feels tense.
“You could bump into someone,” she said. “And a fight could break out.”
After last week’s shooting, students who spoke to The State said they believed a student who was involved in the apartment shooting had been back on campus, with one even hearing from a friend that she had seen the gun. No arrests have been made in the case, and the sheriff’s department said its investigation is ongoing.
School officials did not respond to The State’s questions about the student involved in the shooting being back on campus.
When asked about whether the student allegedly involved in the shooting had been back at the school campus that day, school district officials did not directly respond.
The students also referenced an earlier incident involving a gun before Irmo High switched to virtual learning last September because of safety concerns. An incident report shows that two days before the shutdown, a BB gun resembling a handgun was found hidden in a restroom trash can, which led to a student being charged with carrying a weapon on school grounds and recommended for expulsion.
Sproul is skeptical of the Nest concept. She said keeping problematic students on campus at Irmo High School won’t change the environment on campus.
“If the students who are having these issues are back on campus, the students who are traumatized will be affected, and it will cause a hostile work environment,” Sproul said. “The ones at the high school who do care about their education will be in fight or flight mode.”
Some board members questioned if the Nest would duplicate the Academy for Success, a similar alternative school operating at Spring Hill High School. Ross said while the Academy for Success takes students from across the district, those students’ “home” school was always Irmo and the expectation is that they would ultimately return to Irmo. He also said the district is obligated to educate all students, even those who are most troubled.
”They have not been taken out of the community,” Ross said. “Irmo High School has challenges because Irmo, S.C., has challenges.”
In the meantime, Sproul said she had already heard of other families finding their own solution — withdrawing their children from school all together.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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