Pick up any weekly edition of The Newtown Bee going back many decades, and you will find only a handful of headlines like the one we ran on March 25, 2022, after several incidents of aggression and subsequent arrests of a dozen Newtown High School students. Conversely, every edition virtually for decades has highlighted numerous positive accomplishments of Newtown’s students — our next generation of community leaders.

Sadly, over the course of several days in mid-March, three separate but interconnected altercations broke out involving a small group of students that also involved an educator who was assaulted, but who was not injured and is thankfully fine except for having to live with the memory of this unfortunate experience.

Following the reporting of these incidents, a lot of blame and judging circulated on social networks, along with an undetermined number of first-hand videos taken by student bystanders wielding their mobile devices.

While both sensational (in a bad way) and disturbing to view these animated but momentary snapshots in time, it was heartening to also see so many residents come to the defense of local teens — thousands of which had absolutely nothing to do with these altercations.

We stand with those who know Newtown’s youth better, and cannot encourage folks more strongly against suggesting these incidents and the dozen resulting juvenile court cases represent or define the rest of our community’s exemplary, polite, respectful, contributing, socially conscious, and genuinely good kids. We would even go as far as to defend those involved who are not bad people, but individuals who made bad decisions driven by emotions in the heat of the moment, who must nonetheless be held accountable.

The community should also appreciate the measured and effective response by local police in cooperation with the entire trained security staff of our school district and their leader, Mark Pompano, when these incidents occurred — as well as the immediate follow-through initiated by administrators at Newtown High School led by Principal Kim Longobucco and School Superintendent Lorrie Rodrigue.

Recognizing the need to remind the entire school community about behavioral expectations that have not been discussed with students since last August, the principal set aside an advisory period March 30 to re-address them. “We’re just going to stay on top of this and hope our students can be the exceptional students we know they are,” Longobucco told The Newtown Bee, adding that being clear about rules and expectations is a big part of those efforts.

The longterm impacts of an expulsion or suspension were also looked at, not to scare students, but to remind them of the effects of actions. At the same time, Pompano and his team are increasing their presence at NHS because, as Longobucco stated, school needs to be an inclusive place where everyone is safe to learn.

It was admittedly disheartening to see all this play out as Newtown and our school community was celebrating numerous positive culminations to the school’s spring sports season, its smashingly well-staged spring musical, the activities of its many clubs, and hundreds of Capstone projects, along with the many other achievements, community service initiatives, acts of volunteerism, and countless other good deeds and responsible, responsive behaviors quietly displayed by these students in their households and work places every day.

Our community should reject giving these altercations and the dozen individuals involved any more attention than they deserve for their momentary lapses of reason, and should instead look toward our local high school students with great pride in knowing how well they represent Newtown.