New Kensington police investigating bathroom bullying incident at Valley High School

New Kensington police are investigating a bullying incident in which garbage was dropped on at least one student in a bathroom at Valley High School.

Students found to have been involved could face discipline ranging from detention to expulsion depending on the severity and their own disciplinary history, Superintendent Chris Sefcheck said.

New Kensington police Chief Bob Deringer said his department does not have the names of any suspects, and no charges have been filed.

City Patrolman Philip Huth, the resource officer at Valley High School, said only one such incident has been reported so far.

Jenelle Cole, a life skills teacher at the school, said she was aware of two such incidents.

In one a couple of weeks ago, 10th grade student Isaiah Parks was a victim; Parks, 16, who was born with DiGeorge Syndrome, a rare birth defect, died at his home Oct. 26.

Cole said she did not know if Parks had been specifically targeted, as she was aware that, a week before, a seventh grade student reported to a guidance counselor that the same thing had happened to him in the same bathroom around the same time.

Cole said Parks had limited contact with the general student body. She said he told teachers about what had happened to him.

“He was upset, but he wasn’t devastated,” she said. “He didn’t come in the next day and not want to use the restroom. We did offer him an accommodation to use the bathroom in the nurse’s office, but he refused. He said, ‘No, I’m good.’ ”

Parks’ mother, Devon Schulz, said she didn’t know her son was being bullied at school until after he died. Because of his condition, Schulz said he wasn’t good at expressing how he was feeling. Learning that he had been bullied at school upset her.

“I’m a parent that is very active with their child in school. I’ve always been right on anything that has happened or happening,” she said. “How long did that go on? How many times? And I didn’t know and he didn’t tell me.”

District officials were talking about implementing use of an electronic hall pass system before these bullying incidents, Sefcheck said. The district will be releasing information about the system to parents soon.

The system is expected to be put in use at the high school later this month in response to vandalism in bathrooms, some of which was tied to a TikTok challenge daring students to vandalize schools, most often bathrooms.

Because the system monitors and controls which students use bathrooms and when, Sefcheck said it also could be used to combat bullying.

Sefcheck said the bullying needs to stop.

“We always let students know it’s unacceptable. It disrupts the whole learning environment,” he said. “There are better ways of handling situations than turning to TikTok challenges or personal agendas when there’s an easy way to solve problems, and that’s through working together and communicating well.

“We do not condone violence in any form.”

Sefcheck said anyone with information about the garbage dumping incidents can contact teachers, principals or administrators.

Huth said any victims or witnesses to those incidents or any other incidents at the school are urged to contact him or the New Kensington Police Department.