HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The Huntsville school board meeting became contentious tonight as Superintendent Casey Wardynski railed against complaints that the district does not do enough to stop bullying in the schools.



Wardynski earned loud complaints from the audience at the Annie C. Merts Center when he said that incidents in the schools occur when the students are not where they are supposed to be, such as being "in a bathroom 20 minutes after class begins."

The comment appeared to refer to a Sept. 17 incident in which a 15-year-old Butler High School freshman was reportedly beaten and stripped from the waist up inside one of the school's bathrooms.

"So, it was her fault?" asked a group of students, parents and concerned citizens who also protested outside the central office before the meeting. It was the second time this week that the group demonstrated in support of the girl and her mother, who addressed the school board tonight.



"What my child suffered was far from 'horseplay,'" Megan Colebank said, referring to a characterization of the incident by Wardynski on Monday. "This time it was my child this happened to. Next time it could be your child."

Colebank told the board that the incident, during which she said her daughter suffered bruised ribs, was downplayed by the district and that Wardynski further put her daughter in jeopardy by telling the media that Grissom High School was the school she was ultimately transferred to.

Wardynski said the job of security staff, faculty and other school employees is to protect the children and ensure they are where they are supposed to be. He also said that the violence that does occur stems from fights that begin outside the schools' walls.

"Bullying, that doesn't begin in our schools," Wardynski said. "It comes into our schools."

Students Anna Giudice and Taylor Sisk, organizers of Gay-Straight Alliances at Lee and Grissom high schools, were both part of the afternoon protest. Sisk, the 15-year-old president of Grissom's GSA, was

by a JROTC instructor who lectured Sisk and a fellow student about his Biblical views on homosexuality -- despite both girls asking him to stop.

Giudice addressed the board at the meeting, saying that she was scared to do so but wanted to shine light on the bullying she sees every day in the schools.

Before the meeting, the 17-year-old said today's protest was not about gay and lesbian rights.

"It isn't an LGBT issue, it's an issue for every student in Huntsville," Giudice said. "These incidents are being swept under the rug for the sake of statistics. Stuff like this is what leads to school shootings, to suicides. It affects the entire school."

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