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Parent tells Voorhees board her middle-school daughter suffered repeated harassment; asks for stronger restorative and prevention practices
Summary
A parent told the board her daughter was repeatedly harassed at Voorhees Middle School, alleged delays in effective administrative action, and called for restorative justice and stronger schoolwide prevention practices.
At the Voorhees Township Board of Education meeting, parent and educator Lauren Doyle described repeated harassment of her daughter at Voorhees Middle School and said the district’s response caused additional physical and mental-health harms.
Doyle said she first reported the incidents to school staff in February and followed up by emailing school officials and citing New Jersey’s harassment, intimidation and bullying statute and district policies (5512 and 5600). She said an investigation later substantiated harassment, intimidation or bullying (HIB), but that her daughter was not immediately separated from the alleged aggressor and that the harassment continued.
Doyle said one incident during physical education resulted in her daughter being struck by a ball thrown by another student; she said the injury, combined with a prior wrestling-related injury, requires about six weeks of physical therapy. After a second HIB filing and further follow-up that included copying district leadership, she said school officials took more immediate action. Doyle also said she contacted mobile-response mental-health services on Feb. 24 when her daughter needed stabilization.
Doyle identified herself as a parent, educator of 19 years, and a Ph.D. scholar in education. She told the board she filed her second HIB report after consulting an attorney and asked the board to adopt actionable restorative practices and regular, strategic prevention work rather than relying solely on webinars and after-the-fact interventions.
The board’s public-comment rules were reiterated at the meeting: the board will not take action that night on public-comment items and will notify speakers later of any action taken. No formal board action on the incidents was recorded during the public meeting; the board later moved into an executive session to discuss confidential student- and personnel-related matters and returned to open session with no public action announced.
