NORTH WILDWOOD – Some current and former students at Margaret Mace School and their parents are saying bullying issues they have reported are not being treated seriously by administrators.
As students arrived for school, Nov. 30, that day A protest was held outside Margaret Mace, a K-8 public school serving North Wildwood and West Wildwood, to bring attention to the matter.
Several of the students pointed out one student who they say has threatened them and made them feel afraid to go to school. In a Snapchat video, the same student appeared to be wielding a firearm, with text that included a threat and a homophobic slur. The video, obtained by the Herald from a screen recording of the post, is of the same Margaret Mace student. The video is several years old, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the circumstances but who were not authorized to comment on it publicly. The Herald is withholding his name because he is under 18-years-old.
The student was in the school Nov. 30, while one of his classmates spoke to the Herald from home.
Lizzy Paynter, an eighth grader at Margaret Mace, lost her father, a veteran, to suicide in 2020, as a result of what his family described as PTSD. Paynter, said she was not in school due to the bullying issues she has experienced, recently, mostly caused by the individual holding the gun in the video. In one instance, Paynter’s mother, Melissa Hook, and stepfather, Charlie Hook, said the student told their daughter he would “blow her brains out” like her father did to himself.
“They didn’t do anything about it – punishment-wise,” Paynter said. “They told us there wasn’t much that we could do.”
North Wildwood Police Chief John Stevenson referred questions to public information officer Lt. Katherine Madden, who said the department is aware of the video with the student holding a gun.
Requests for police records related to the incident were still being reviewed by the city’s attorney, Madden said. She did confirm the individual in the video was charged with terroristic threats.
School District Superintendent Christopher Armstrong said in an interview he could not comment on individual accusations involving specific students but stressed that bullying is not a cultural problem at the school.
However, 20 to 25 parents and former students, who stood on the sidewalk across from the school in a relatively silent protest, holding anti-bullying signs, disagreed.
They said there are problems communicating with administrators and little to no action being taken by the school. Charlie Hook and Mellissa Hook, two of the parents, said they recently filed an HIB338 form, which is a state mandated bullying reporting procedure.
Though Armstrong said he could not talk about any individual case, in general after an HIB338 complaint is received, the school would launch an investigation into the incident and present the findings to the superintendent, who would then present them to the board in closed session at their next meeting. Then the board would determine a course of action.
Another parent outside the school protesting said she had her child transferred out of the school at the beginning of the school year after an incident where the same troublesome student barged into her classroom, verbally attacking her by calling her “pepperoni face” and ugly.
The targeted student, Jessica Mellina, said in an interview she used to throw up regularly at school because being there made her sick to her stomach. The day after the verbal assault, there was a field trip, but Mellina didn’t want to go since the other student was still allowed on the trip. This was despite receiving a written warning for the name-calling incident. Mellina remained back at school while the offending student went on the trip.
“I got told I should just find a way to get less sensitive,” Mellina said.
Her mother, Carolyn Mellina, called Carolyn Morey, Margaret Mace’s Supervisor of Pupil Personnel and Supervisor of the Child Study Team, to express her frustration and interest in taking Jessica out of Margaret Mace.
During the conversation, a recording of which was obtained by the Herald, Morey can be heard asking Carolyn Mellina to keep Jessica at Margaret Mace for a couple more weeks, until Oct.15, when the school’s enrollment is tabulated. This way, she said, Jessica would be counted in the enrollment and the school would receive the associated funding for the year.
Armstrong said he was unaware of the conversation until it was played for him by the Herald, but said he does not condone what was said and believes student safety should always be the number one priority. He said any handling of the incident would be kept confidential as a personnel matter.
A former Margaret Mace student, Chanel Carr, now 18, also joined the Nov. 30 protest. She said four years ago, things weren’t much different. She described painful mornings of consistent teasing when the whole school used to gather in one place mornings before the first bell. She and her mother said they both alerted and met with administrators but found little-to-no action taken by the school in response to their reports. Instead, they said they were met with a complaint saying that they did not live in the school district and had to go to the school board to prove their residence. Cecily Carr, Chanel’s mother, said she felt this was an act of retaliation meant to intimidate.
“Instead of fixing the issue, they tried to come after us to try to get us kicked out of the school,” Cecily Carr said in an interview. “We were met with more bullying.”
Armstrong again said he cannot comment on specific accusations but said there is no retaliation against people who report bullying and there is nothing unusual about regularly checking to make sure all students are residents.
He said he had not spoken with students or teachers about the protest and did not go outside to engage with protestors or to view the demonstration.
Those who were there protesting said that is unusual, since Armstrong is usually on the front steps each morning, greeting students as they arrive.
The Herald will continue to follow the alleged bullying at the school and will follow up when more information is made available by the police department.
