At a meeting held on Monday, the Moore County Board of Education addressed a string of fights that took place at Crain’s Creek Middle School between May 15 and May 21.
Board member Pauline Bruno formally requested the discussion, and Superintendent Dr. Tim Locklair was present to answer questions from board members regarding the incidents.
“I had heard a great deal about the happenings at Crain’s Creek during the last two weeks of school,” opened Bruno. “I requested that we talk about this and find out the truth of what happened and how it’s being handled.”
A report on the Crain’s Creek Middle School’s official webpage indicates that the school had around 490 students as of the 2023-2024 school year.
Dr. Locklair confirmed that 25 fights happened across the 2024-2025 school year at Crain’s Creek Middle, while seven of those fights happened in the month of May. He noted that six of the incidents were connected to community-related conflicts. The other fights throughout the year were not discussed further.
“In each of these situations, they involved two students,” said Dr. Locklair regarding the fights. “So it was just a single incident fight. It wasn’t multiple students. It wasn’t a riot. It wasn’t anything of that nature.”
According to Dr. Locklair, the fights primarily occurred during morning arrival and hallway transitions. Additional school resource officers were requested during the incidents and when the involved students returned from suspension.
Board member David Hensley raised concerns about the three-month delay in notifying the board of the incidents.
“This happened in May, and three months later, there was still no notice to the board about [these incidents],” said Hensley. “In fact, had Ms. Bruno not had a chance conversation with someone who apparently had factual information, we would have never known about this.”
Dr. Locklair accepted responsibility for the communication lapse, acknowledging a “structural failure” in the process.
“Well, there’s no intentional effort to cover this up and not share,” said the superintendent.
Interim leadership has implemented new measures for the current school year, including staggered bus unloading, “grab-and-go” breakfasts to reduce large gatherings, a smart pass system to track students outside class, and increased staff presence in hallways during transitions.
“Two misbehaving students who disrupt everything—they’re taking away the other students’ right to a sound, basic education,” said Hensley. “Hopefully, appropriate punishment is dealt out so that these do not become repeat offenders and the school can be what it should be: a place of learning, and a place where students shouldn’t feel fearful, and they can have a community breakfast.”
When Hensley brought up a need for discipline within the school system, Dr. Locklair reported that the incidents resulted in the most severe short-term suspension allowed, 10 days.
“You think about that with over 13,000 students, the great, great, great, great majority of our students behave as expected,” said Dr. Locklair. “Sometimes students make mistakes, and there’s consequences to those mistakes. Of course, our desired outcome is that they learn from them.”
Chair Dr. Calcutt mirrored Dr. Locklair’s sentiments before closing the discussion.
“I really appreciate the extra work and attention that our school district provides to make sure we have a positive behavioral intervention system in place and our schools have strong cultures,” said Dr. Calcutt. “Yes, every once in a while things are brought into the schoolhouse, but they were dealt with appropriately.”
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~ Article by Sandhills Sentinel Assistant Editor Abegail Murphy. Abegail has been writing for Sandhills Sentinel since 2021. File photo.
