Police investigate outbreak of violence involving York school pupils
Police are investigating an outbreak of violence which involved pupils from a York school.
One woman was assaulted in the incident, which took place in broad daylight and was filmed by several students.
At around 3.30pm on Monday (13 March) police were called to reports of violence in New Earswick near the shops on Haxby Road, York.
A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “Eye-witnesses reported that a group of secondary school age children from Joseph Rowntree School were involved in a physical altercation.
“A woman who became involved in the incident was also physically assaulted.
“Officers are engaging with the school and an investigation has been launched to determine the circumstances around the incident.
“Police are requesting that those who captured mobile phone footage of the assault give consideration to those who may have been targeted and not share it on social media platforms.”
Joseph Rowntree School head teacher David Hewitt has emailed parents about the incident.
In his message, he wrote: “We have sanctioned individual students directly involved in the incident in line with our behaviour policy.
“We have also spoken to other students who were present at the incident to remind them about our core values and expectations of their behaviour when they are travelling to and from school.
“We will be contacting parents/carers of these students later today to reinforce our expectations of their children’s conduct.
“The vast majority of our students always behave themselves well in school and in the local community and I wanted to reassure you that we will not accept behaviour of this kind from any of our students.”
Anyone who did capture footage of the incident, or has any information which would assist the investigation, can contact North Yorkshire Police on 101 quoting reference 12230045667.
Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously on 0800 555 111.