After incidents of students forking each other in the cafeteria and other bad behavior, Dalmas pulled the utensils out of the school and instituted other "extreme" security measures that are irking some parents, WPXI reports.
"They are taking the kids' utensils from them for lunch, telling them to eat with their fingers and they are not allowed to use bathrooms," parent Emanuel Rodriguez said. "It's just ridiculous."School officials also reportedly revoked hall passes and took other measures to limit access to bathrooms over problems with fights and drug use.
Student Hailey Kwiatanowski seemed to understand exactly why the drastic action was necessary. "We've had multiple school fights in the last few days. We've had girls get jumped, police here, ambulances here," she said.
Rodriguez still thinks school security is overboard. "They make these kids come down here and stand outside in a line, just to enter the building," he said, adding that school officials have not discussed problems with parents. "No parent has been updated about anything."
Dalmas issued a statement about the situation, though it provided exactly zero details on the problems plaguing the school.
"From time to time schools must limit the use of hall passes, monitor the time students take moving from one class to another, and thoroughly investigate situations that hinder the learning process," he wrote. "This redirection is a change to students' normal routines and change is sometimes hard."
The changes also come after two shootings near the school in the last year, one in April and another in October that left an 18-year-old dead, the Tribune-Review reports.
WPXI reports parents "flooded" the station's email account with complaints.
Watch the news report here.
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