School Accountability

“A student who is attacked may use reasonable force in self-defense, but only to the extent necessary to get free from the attack and notify proper school authorities. A student who exceeds reasonable force may be disciplined even though someone else provoked the fight.”

That is what WCPSS’s Code of Student Conduct  tells students to do if they are attacked by another student. The problem is that this rule has no basis in reality. If a student is attacked, they will have no choice but to hit back to protect themselves, and in the moment, there’s no way of knowing ‘reasonable force’ when you are in danger. 

Additionally, the administrators of Leesville Road High School don’t always investigate if the attacked student fought back in self defense. There is at least one instance where the school decided to punish a “fight” –one student simply tried to defend himself– by suspending both students and leaving it at that.

The problem isn’t the punishment of fighting, which should be punished. The problem is the lack of actual investigation into incidents which can cause unfair punishments. 

Chris Heagarty, a member of the Wake County School board, agreed. He said via email, “I think the policy itself is fair, but it is not always applied fairly, especially when sometimes all the facts are not known.”

Fair Punishment

According to the Wake County Code of Student Conduct, students involved in a level two infraction (theft or fighting) are eligible for up to ten days of suspension or a longer term punishment if the principal recommends it. 

But is the policy fair? The punishment for a level three infraction (which includes assault on a student) is, “The principal may impose a short-term suspension of 10 days or less or decline to impose any suspension based on mitigating factors.” 

Why can a principal decide to not suspend a student for assault of a student? Principals and other school administrators do not always properly punish incidents, and this is exemplified by examining an incident that I witnessed at the 2026 Leesville Homecoming game. 

After one student instigated a shoving match, he repeatedly punched the other student hard enough to splatter blood over the bleachers. The aggressor in this situation received a ten day suspension, and the student who got punched in the face received a five day suspension after never throwing a punch. 

If administrators decided to question students who were there and understand what actually happened, fair punishment could have been doled out. However, the school decided it was easier to give out an unfair punishment despite one student clearly being the victim. 

The issue in the schools process for dealing with fights is that they don’t always check evidence before doling out punishments. According to Heagarty, “There was one particular case of a fight at Leesville Road High School (not involving any current students) where both students involved in the fight were suspended but upon review of the video the district leaders overturned the school decision and the student who was defending himself was not punished.” 

There is no reason that footage of a fight should be reviewed after two students have been suspended. The issue here is in the school’s order of operations. The school needs to be required to check footage and witnesses before punishment is handed out.

How Can This Be Fixed

The fix for this issue is shockingly uncomplicated and easy to execute with cooperation between district level and school level officials: 

1. Investigate all violent incidents by calling in witnesses and security footage before handing out punishments.
2. Avoid harsh punishments on students who are clearly victims
3. Amend the Wake County Code of Student Conduct to require expulsion of students who are involved in fights three times

Despite what some may think, investigating school fights is not difficult. Almost all fights will have dozens of witnesses and security footage to figure out who is responsible. Additionally, instead of punishing students who record the fight, they could obtain the videos from students (if necessary) to investigate the incident further. Admin does take this action in some cases, but it needs to become standard procedure.

This change will lead to Wake County schools properly investigating these incidents with the level of attention they deserve. With this accomplished, they can focus on properly punishing students who are involved. 

Fortunately, the Wake County Code of Student Conduct already allows for students who are involved in multiple fights to be expelled. The issue here is that they almost never actually expel these students. Many repeat offenders simply receive repeated suspensions, which for some students is almost a reward because they don’t have to go to school. 

“Generally, the board is interested in policies that create more interventions and chances for restorative justice before students are suspended, but the board must also protect all students from incidents of violence,” Heagarty said via email. 

The problem is the Wake County Board is not currently balancing these goals properly. Student safety should always be the top priority, and if giving students harsher punishments is how that can be accomplished then that must be the action taken.

Wake County needs to prioritize school safety and actually punish violent individuals for student safety while avoiding unfair punishments on students who are victims. There is no reason why students should be going into the line of fire every day because Wake County wants to give some students a second, a third, or a fourth chance, and there is no reason why innocent students should be suspended for being attacked.