Safety Concerns Emerge at MacDonald Middle School

Teacher Appreciation Week, spanning from May 5 to 9, was marked by two scary incidents involving MacDonald Middle School (MMS) students and staff. One incident saw threats against a teacher and violence inflicted upon a paraprofessional, and in another furniture was thrown and a longtime substitute teacher was verbally abused in another classroom.  

Four district staff members spoke with ELi about ongoing safety concerns at the middle school and two specific incidents that occurred earlier this month. The staff members said violence has become a troubling pattern, and the recent events have caused teachers to fear for their safety. The staff members asked to remain anonymous.

The concerns come about two years after there was widespread outcry about a need to overhaul safety and accountability standards in the high school after a series of scary incidents. 

Incident where a teacher was threatened, paraprofessional was hit were alarming to staff members. 

On Tuesday, May 6 at the East Lansing Public Library, three MMS students attacked a 23-year-old man who is an on-call paraprofessional at the school. The man tutors students after hours at the library and is the son of a teacher at MacDonald. During the altercation, the three students made threats against the man — striking him seven to 10 times in the head, according to someone familiar with the situation — and made threats of sexual violence against his mother.

ELi spoke with a librarian at ELPL who also asked to be kept anonymous.

“[The three students] were causing a ruckus at the library,” the librarian said.  “[The paraprofessional] yelled at them to stop what they were doing. They said some very terrible things back to him.  [The paraprofessional] is pressing charges, as far as I know.”

The librarian said that this type of disruption has become common.

“We’ve had fights every week for the last three weeks,” they said on May 7. “[The students] don’t have anywhere else to go so they come to the library. We’ve tried a hundred different things. We’ve had a lot of middle schoolers because they might have [after school sports] but not until 4:30 p.m.”

ELi reached out to ELPL for official comment with Liz Kish, experience team leader, confirming the altercation.

“The East Lansing Public Library’s priority is to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all visitors,” Kish responded in an email. “We enforce our Patron Code of Conduct to support that goal. This policy is regularly reviewed and updated by the Library Board and staff, with the next review scheduled for later this year as part of our standard evaluation process.”

By the next day, the three students were back in school and told by MacDonald administration to not contact the paraprofessional’s mother, a teacher at the school. However, two MMS staff members told ELi that one of the students did enter the teacher’s classroom when another student unlocked the classroom for them to enter. The teacher was in the room when the student entered. 

The student was removed and the teacher was granted early release for the day.  Two MMS staff members told ELi that since that encounter, the teacher filed a personal protection order against the student.

Each of the anonymous MacDonald staff members ELi spoke with confirmed that at no point did the district administration inform staff about the harassment or violence.

One day after the incident at ELPL, ELi reached out to ELPS Superintendent Dori Leyko to ask about the students’ presence in school and any concerns about safety.

“I have no comment from the district at this point,” Leyko said in a text message.  “I’m still learning about it.”

The situation escalated on Thursday, May 8.

One of the three students involved in the library incident (but not the same student who broke the no-contact request on Wednesday), had a physical and verbal outburst.

“He verbally assaulted a substitute teacher,” one MacDonald staff member said, “and threw furniture across the room.”

Safety, communication an ongoing concern at MMS. 

The incidents this month were concerning for MMS staff members, but they represent a larger issue of fighting in school and the standards that are being set for students. 

Ross Gorman, President of the East Lansing Education Association, declined to comment on any specific behavioral incidents – but did say there is concern about overall safety at MacDonald Middle School. 

“I don’t want to speak for any specific incidents, but I think it would be appropriate to say that there are members within the union who have some concerns about safety at the middle school,” Gorman wrote to ELi via text. “Most of these concerns seem to revolve around a particular cohort of students who are defiant of redirection and outwardly hostile to staff members. Presently, the Union’s position is that we are working with administration to find solutions to this problem.”

Gorman continued to say that many teachers in the high school feel that changes made in 2023 after safety concerns surfaced have been successful. 

“Changes such as having an option for in-school suspension, additional security staff, and additional student support staff, and not all of those changes were replicated in the Middle school,” Gorman wrote. “The administration does have plans to hire additional security and safety staff for next year for the middle school.” 

ELi reached back out to Leyko Thursday, May 15, again requesting comment. She said she cannot comment on incidents involving students’ personal information but she would consider answering specific questions. 

ELi sent over four questions about trends regarding fights at MMS, if there were changes made in reaction to the incidents in early May, if there were steps taken to increase safety at MMS since 2023 and if there are concerns about safety at MMS. As of Monday, May 19, Leyko has not respond to these questions. 

The MacDonald staff members ELi spoke with offered different explanations for the safety concerns.

“Administrators at MacDonald have been nothing but supportive,” one staff member said, “and the [teacher’s] union has been amazing. But it’s substantially worse in the middle school. They have hired behavioral specialists who have made things much worse. They’re not consistent. They don’t follow through with expectations.

“We just need more bodies in the hallways.  If all the teachers just stood out in the hallways and monitored things [and] if we had consistent behavior expectations [it would help].”

Another staff member agreed that expectations were not clear.

“There seems to be a pattern of very violent behavior,” they said.  “Staff safety is not taken seriously and [there is a] lack of follow through and too much sexually aggressive language. It puts teaching and learning outcomes of the rest of the school at risk.

“Despite the positions created and monies being spent for trying to stop these incidents, we continually have these behaviors and incidents at the middle school.”