BHAS Superintendent Responds To Hull Incident Involving First Grader

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andraetownsel-3

Benton Harbor Area Schools superintendent Andrae Townsel is aware of a video that was posted to Facebook and had thousands of shares through the weekend of an incident at International Academy at Hull in which a first-grade student was bullied and beaten up by his classmates.

“The first thing I did was reach out to the family to give them our support as a district and to let them know that we’re acting swiftly in investigating and holding all people who contributed accountable, students and adults alike,” said Townsel.

The superintendent says he has met with the young boy’s mother and her pastor.

“They’re frustrated,” he says. “I have an eight-year-old son, and if my son was involved in a situation like this, I’d be upset and concerned as well as a parent. So, I totally understand where they’re coming from. My goal is to ensure this never happens again moving forward.”

The young boy’s mother tells WSJM News while the incident happened early last week, she wasn’t aware of it until it was posted online. In the video, an adult presumed to be the teacher is heard saying “that’s what he gets,” and several students are recording the attack on tablet computers, with no one appearing to try to step in and help the child. Before the video was either removed or the settings changed to no longer be public, it had been shared over 2,000 times as of Sunday night.

While WSJM News has obtained the video of the incident, we will not publish screenshots or the video itself due to legal and privacy concerns.