MI. Three Comstock Park students expelled for fight uploaded to YouTube

By Aaron Ogg | The Grand Rapids Press

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP — Three Comstock Park High School students involved in a hallway fight viewed thousands of times on YouTube were expelled Tuesday.

Administrators played the student-filmed video as they detailed for the school board the April altercation, which allegedly stemmed from a drug deal gone bad.

“(When an adult is present), usually it stops pretty quick, but this one did not,” Principal John Kraus said. “This one went on.

“It created a great safety risk for any student.”

Officials tightened the school’s security measures following the incident. For example, students are banned from staying after school unless they’re in supervised programs. Also, a policy requiring office staff to buzz in students through locked exterior doors was reinforced.

The cell phone recording of the fight was a violation of the school’s technology policy. Superintendent Ethan Ebenstein said the video was helpful in determining students’ roles, but it would be premature to consider relaxing the policy for similar benefit in the future.

Officials don’t know who filmed the fight, Ebenstein said.

The mother of 16-year-old Marquese Chatman, one of the students involved, allowed the board’s expulsion proceedings to unfold publicly. Families of the two other students requested closed a review, which is more typical. Their names were not released.

“I’m ready to go back to school so I can do what I gotta do,” Marquese told the panel.

Administrators recounted Marquese’s previous offenses, including an incident in which he allegedly pushed a female student, removed her belongings from her locker and threw them in a school parking lot. That resulted in a five-day suspension in April.

“It’s more than the actual incident that has to be considered,” Ebenstein said of expulsion considerations.

Marquese has been a Comstock Park student since January. He said he is considering trying to enroll in Grand Rapids Public Schools.

An expulsion hearing for a fourth Comstock Park student involved in the fight is slated for next Monday.

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