Concerns Raised About Sex Assault Video Seen By Concord Students

CONCORD, NH — Concord police spent late last week investigating a graphic video on a cellphone seen by some Rundlett Middle School students as well as two sexual assault incidents reported at the school.

An officer was sent Friday to meet with an assistant principal about the issues.

On Sunday, Paulette Fitzgerald, a principal at the school, explained a video that surfaced last week contained “violent, sexually explicit content,” that was shown and shared by one student to other students. The video did not, however, feature Rundlett students, she said. Fitzgerald said both police and the parents of anyone tagged when the video was shared were contacted.

John Thomas, the deputy chief of the Concord Police Department, confirmed the video, which was graphic in nature, was investigated by the department. No students were involved with the video, which was found to have come from another state.

Another issue last week raised at Rundlett was a new TikTok challenge that has become popular recently — involving students, primarily boys, who have been hitting or grabbing each other in their private parts.

“This could be considered sexual assault,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald told parents the school was working to develop “lessons to teach our students about the dangers of both of these social media posts-challenges and the resulting consequences (including police involvement) if they choose to participate.” She requested parents to check children’s social media accounts on a regular basis to track who they are following and who is following them.

“Let’s work together to keep our students safe,” she said.

COVID-19 Update

Rundlett has recently issued pooled testing at the school.

The most recent pool testing was done on 81 students in three clusters and all the tests were negative, something Fitzgerald called, “great news.” Another round of testing will be done on Tuesday for Cluster 6-2 and 6-3 students.

Families with children in the clusters have been notified, she said.

Other Notes

Students in SAU 8 are off on Veterans Day, which is Thursday.

Report cards are expected to be available on Nov. 15.

Fitzgerald also thanked parents for understanding how difficult the lives of nurses were currently during the pandemic, attempting to resolve student health issues.

“A huge thank you to the parents who have responded to mandatory phone calls with kindness and understanding,” she said. “We are living through really tough times and we are in this together.”

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