The Smyrna School District Zero Tolerance Pipeline Part 4: The Discipline Hearing- The Testimony Of Smyrna Middle School Administrators

In Part 3, we heard the testimony of the alleged victim, P, and the School Resource Officer.  Now let’s dive right into the testimony of the administrators.  First up, Smyrna Middle School Associate Principal John Camponelli:

The Smyrna School District Zero Tolerance Pipeline Part 2: The Arrest

Five and a half months went by after the incident in the home economics room.  J took the Smarter Balanced Assessment along with the rest of his 7th grade peers at Smyrna Middle School.  On April 20th, J and his friends were walking down the hall on their way to the school bus.  Something happened that would alter the course of J’s future…

Hearing Gives Details About The Amy Joyner-Francis Murder With Victim’s Last Words

They jumped me.  They snuck me. -the last words from Amy Joyner-Francis

Yesterday, a Family Court hearing in Delaware convened to decide whether or not Trinity Carr should be tried as an adult in the murder of Amy-Joyner Francis.  Disturbing evidence came out during the hearing solidifying the theory that Carr,  Zion Snow, and Chakeira Wright planned the attack for 20 hours before the fight.

The News Journal gave a very gruesome detailing of the outcome of the paragraph in their lead which appeared in print today:

A fatal attack in which Howard High School of Technology sophomore Amy Inita Joyner-Francis was punched in the head two dozen times and had her fingernails ripped out started because of a group text message, a Wilmington police detective said in court Monday.

The State News did not mention the fingernails being ripped out in their lead, but did give more weight to the blows against Amy…

A cellphone video of a high school restroom fight that left a 16-year-old Delaware girl dead shows the victim on the ground, struggling to fight back and escape as she is repeatedly hit and kicked in the head while her assailant holds on to her hair.

If I had to guess, the part about the fingernails played a huge role in the decision of prosecutors to try Carr as an adult.   This was a very vicious and brutal attack.  For someone to drag a teenager by the hair, punch and kick her in the head over twenty times, and tear out her fingernails… that takes a viciousness and callousness with an intent to seriously harm or kill someone.  But what astonished me even more was the fact that a math teacher, who found Amy in the bathroom and heard her last words, had to run to get a nurse.  Where were all the students who witnessed a classmate getting seriously hurt to the eventual point of death?  Why did none of them, upon witnessing this scene, run to grab a nurse?

Details emerged, according to The News Journal article, that Carr showed no remorse upon learning of Amy’s death…

Deputy Attorney General Theresa Sedevic, however, said that even after Carr learned of her death at the Wilmington police station hours later, Carr blamed Joyner-Francis for the attack and was upset only that the incident would mess up her chances of getting a nursing degree.

The murder occurred inside a Delaware school, Howard High School of Technology.  A source within the district, who wished to remain anonymous, told me the district pretends like the murder never happened.  No one talks about it.  This source felt like the New Castle County Vo-Tech district moved on and forgot about what happened.

I have never bought this bad theory that an unknown heart condition was the cause of her death.  Amy died because someone killed her.  Plain and simple.  Even though the articles talked about how Carr has received counseling and is making progress, it doesn’t erase what she did.  She planned to hurt Amy.  She killed Amy.  She needs to be tried as an adult and given an appropriate sentencing for an adult if found guilty.  Why is Carr allowed to travel out of state when she has been accused of murder?  Why is she allowed to teach Sunday School to kids at a church in Philadelphia?  But more importantly, why is she under homebound instruction which is paid for by the school district?  Does this mean Carr was not expelled from the school district after murdering a classmate in a bathroom?  What kind of message does that send to Amy’s parents when not even the school district could bring even an iota of justice to their daughter’s murder?  Students have been expelled from Delaware schools for much less.  None of this makes sense.

None of this will bring Amy back to her family who misses their daughter every single day.  There is no such thing as justice when you lose a loved one like this.  Nothing will bring their daughter back.

The Judge in the case is expected to render a decision on how Carr will be tried by the end of next week according to The State News article.

So How’s My Kid Doing?

Thank you to all who have sent their concerns and well wishes for my son.  I just wanted to give an update.  He is currently on homebound instruction for the foreseeable future due to the concussion he received from another child at his school the last day before Christmas break.

His MRI came back clean, but we are awaiting the results of a second impact test which shows if there is any problems arising from the concussion.  He is under a lot of physical limitations.  He wanted to ride his bike today, but he can’t.  He can’t be in a travelling car for more than half an hour.  Screen time is vastly reduced.  He’s not as tired as he was a couple weeks ago, but he has not gotten back to his normal sleep pattern.  His doctor recommended some physical therapy for the concussion, so we have that coming up as well.  He misses some of the kids at his school, and some of his teachers.

One punch.

That’s all it took to wreck his life.  One punch.

There is a lot about this situation I am unable to write about at this time.  But I did commit to making bullying a top priority for this year.  For those who have been following this blog from the beginning, you know when I start on a big topic, I tend to write a big article about it.  It’s coming.

In the meantime, I pray he gets better soon.  Many parents have said “Why doesn’t he fight back?”  Cause we’ve told him not to.  This is a child with disabilities.  Sure, there’s a part of me that wants to say go to town if he is assaulted, but the reasonable part of me knows what could happen.  Kids with disabilities that fight back don’t always have the best future.  Some of them wind up in residential treatment centers.  Possibly out of state.  And it’s not like our schools are always fair when a kid defends himself.  I wish he didn’t have to defend himself.  I wish kids would see him the way I do.  But you can’t always get what you want and all that.

I will defend him though.  Against the forces that are bigger than him, bigger than most of us.  I will fight the future.  I will fight those who say they want the best for our children while they fill their wallets with our  money.  I will fight those who sit behind the protection of the state but take advantage.  I won’t be a bully for my son, I will be a warrior for him.