WILMINGTON, Del., April 28 (UPI) — The three students allegedly involved in the beating death of another student in a Delaware high school bathroom last week have been removed from the school and likely will be charged, officials said.
The three are considered persons of interest by Wilmingon police and the state attorney general’s office in the killing of 16-year-old Amy Inita Joyner-Francis at Howard High School of Technology last Thursday, Police Chief Bobby Cummings said at a town hall meeting Monday night.
“One of the things we did not want to do is rush to judgment and press charges that could possibly be overturned,” Cummings said. “I don’t know that they truly understood their actions but there are heavy consequences they will have to pay as a result of this.
“We hope to have some closure by the end of this week,” Cummings said. “We know that charges will be filed,” Cummings said, but as authorities continue to investigate the case, they are trying to determine exactly what those charges will be.
The Vo-Tech School District Superintendent Vicki Gehrt, the board of education and school Principal Stanley Spoor said in a statement that 90 percent of the school’s students were in class on Monday. Friday was a shortened day in which counseling was offered to students.
“We have to be really watchful in working with our students as they go through the process of grieving to anger,” Gehrt said. “We have to be there for them.”
But others at the meeting said the student’s death can’t be seen as an isolated incident.
“Please understand that this is not a problem in one school in one district in one community or in one state,” said Patricia Dailey Lewis, CEO of the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children. “We all have to work together to find a solution to help our kids and our families and our communities to address the bullying and violence.”
