FRUITLAND, Md.- Not one, but two fights caught on camera and shared around social media. Brawls breaking out at Bennett Middle School in Fruitland on a near daily basis, according to parents whose kids attend the school.
"It's insane. You know we heard it from the first day of school. And me sending a sixth grader to a middle school was kind of scary enough," Bennett Middle parent, Tiffany Knupp, said.
Knupp is also taking charge. She organized a meeting on Tuesday night that brought parents, teachers, and staff members together to discuss their concerns.
"We saw how much of a need and how concerned our community is with the safety of our children," Knupp said.
Parents also say their biggest worry is a lack of communication between them and the school.
"When they go to Bennett Middle School and say hey, 'My kid's being harassed, that's it.' That's kind of where it stops. There's no communication with the parents saying, 'We hear you, this is the next step we're taking,'" Knupp explained.
Another community member who was in attendance Tuesday night was Miles Moffitt. Moffitt runs programs at his jujitsu school. Several of his students attend Bennett Middle, and he wants them to be prepared if they ever need to defend themselves.
"You just try to instill some confidence, respect, integrity in the kids and it bleeds over into their social life. And a lot times they stopped being bullied," Moffitt said.
Bennett Middle School Principal Christel Savage explained that the number of fights has not increased since last year. She said that because social media is more prevalent, more people are taking notice. Savage also attended Tuesday night's meeting and welcomed ideas and comments from parents.
"One of the parents has volunteered to be on my parent advisory board. I think that her being able to kind of get that parent feedback, bring that back to our advisory team and talk about that is a good way to get that information to us and then hopefully for us to take that information and create some changes," Savage said.
Savage also mentioned that when it comes to parents wanting to know more about what's going on inside the school, it's tricky since she can't give out specific details about students. But she says she's willing to work with the Wicomico County Board of Education to see just how much information she can give out to make parents feel more at ease.
