By Staff
Southside defendants get continuances
By CLAUD HODGES
Senior Reporter
Nine cases involving students involved in a fight at Southside High School were continued and a 10th prosecution was deferred in Beaufort County District Court on Monday.
Each case represents one misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge, according to Jonathan Jones, assistant district attorney for the 2nd Judicial District.
The continuances should allow all of the defendants’ attorneys time to get their cases prepared by April 14, Jones said.
District Court Judge Michael Paul presided at Monday’s court.
Cases continued involved Southside High School students who were arrested as a result of the Jan. 18 fight. Those students are: Aaron Jamire Carter, Ta’Keyna Maria Carter, Jessica Lynn Hardy, Jasmine Alexander Jones, Vernon Dashawn Mason, Antwan Maurice McCuller, Tiffany D. Moore, Elijah Zachariah Scott and Andre Terrell Willis.
Shantia Satterthwaite received a deferred prosecution for her disorderly conduct charge.
On Jan. 18 at Southside High School, two students started fighting in a common area on the school’s campus. Approximately 400 students were in and around the commons area when the incident occurred and more students joined the fight, according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
Some of the students involved in the fight were penalized with long-term suspensions while others received short-term suspensions, according to the Concerned Parents for the Betterment of the Beaufort County School System.
Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Jeff Moss, nor any member of the Beaufort County Board of Education, will comment on any action taken by the school system because of the fight.
David Sapp, an attorney from Durham who is representing some of the parents of the students suspended because of the fight, said Monday that the Beaufort County Schools system is not following through on its obligation to provide some of the suspended students with an education outside of their usual school setting at Southside High School.
Sapp is an attorney for Legal Aid and is involved in the organization’s statewide project Advocates for Children’s Services.
Sapp said the parents he is representing are not saying that their children should not be punished for their involvement in the fight. He said the parents, and the students, only want to be afforded an education that the state is entitled to give them.
Sapp said he is working on similar situations in the state and is impressed in Beaufort County that the parents have formed an action group to address the situation and to try to become involved in it.
Lawsuits have been filed by some of the parents.
However, Sapp said the lawsuits by themselves are not going to solve the problem.
He said the society must step in to help and that the society can place a value on education for everyone.