MADISON, Ala. — Madison City Schools officials are responding to now-viral videos of an incident on a James Clemens High School bus. Superintendent Dr. Ed Nichols says that the videos don't tell the whole story.
Videos show a student biting an administrator and the administrator striking the student. What's missing from them is what happened leading up to this incident.
In a news conference, Dr. Nichols said, "[Tuesday] around 3:40 p.m. at dismissal time, we had two students on a bus at James Clemens that became they had a physical altercation between each other. Bus driver called for assistance with the administrative team who responded. They tried to separate [the students]. Of course, when we have a physical altercation between students, we have to respond. We couldn't allow students just to continue on without us trying to intervene and stop. We were able to successfully remove one student from the bus. The administrators tried to remove the second student in the altercation from the bus.
"During that time, the administrator was assaulted, was hit 6 to 10 times across the back of their head. Ultimately, they were bitten twice on their forearm, actually went through the jacket and broke the skin, requiring medical attention. And the video that's out there now shows about 3 seconds of about a three minute event, of which at that at some point, the administrator, after trying to defuse the situation, actually putting their arms up this way to try to stop the situation, felt a need to defend themselves and did so."
When asked to identify the administrator and if there are policies or certain trainings for situations like this, Nichols said that the person was a vice-principal at James Clemens High School and the district does have policies and "...they followed through looking at the bus video. They followed through trying to diffuse. In fact, at one point, the administrator trying to separate the two students had their back completely to one of the students to keep them separated. That's when they were getting hit across the back of their head 6 to 10 times. They turned around trying to keep that person at bay with their arms like this. At which time they were attacked twice on their arm. While that was happening, another student behind them was handed to them and punching them in the back as well."
The two students involved in the altercation have been suspended. The vice-principal is back at work at James Clemens.
