JACKSON BOARD TO BE QUESTIONED ON PRANK

JACKSON -- Distressed with the Jackson R-2 School District's response to a bizarre prank pulled by some students last spring, a group of parents and others plan to present the board tonight with petitions calling for a change of policy toward students on probation or parole.

"We are concerned for the safety of the children. We think they have received the wrong message up to this point," said Fritz Sander, who helped organize the campaign.

The 7:30 p.m. meeting has been moved from the board's small space on West Adams Street to the Jackson Middle School cafeteria to accommodate the number of people expected to attend despite competition from Back to School Night.

Seven friends played the prank on another friend March 19, "kidnaping" him at a party and scaring him with a chain saw before tying him to a cross. Some of the events were videotaped by a parent of one of the boys. The videotape was played before guests at a birthday party and briefly in a class at school.

Juvenile authorities took the 15- and 16-year-old boys out of class on May 4. Six of them received counseling and did community service. The seventh boy also was counseled and performed community service. He remains on probation.

Had they been adults, the boys would have been charged with misdemeanor assault -- the seventh boy with two counts.

The victim is now living with a relative and attending school in the western part of the state.

Sander estimated the number of signatures on the petitions at more than 300. They call on the board to prevent students from participating in extracurricular activities if they are on probation or parole. They also say the boy who is on probation should not be allowed to participate in any sport.

He is playing football. The school board has decided that all seven boys are eligible to participate in extracurricular activities.

The Rev. Grant Gillard, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, plans to speak to the board tonight about the "human element" represented by Bobbie and Stuart Venable, whose son was the target of the prank.

"The issues they're raising are being discredited, minimized. It's no big deal," Gillard said. "The school district keeps dodging."

The Venables have questioned whether the high school administration acted to protect their son from incidents that occurred in the aftermath and whether the administration tried its best to find out whether the video was shown in class.

The community needs "at least the acknowledgement that this was a horrible thing," Gillard said. "I've not heard that. All I've heard is, I can't talk to you until I talk to our lawyer. That galls me."

Brenda Birk and her husband, Sam, have known the Venables since high school and are neighbors. Sam Birk is a commentator for Jackson High School football games. Both are scheduled to speak at the meeting.

Brenda Birk, who has two children in Jackson schools, said she will question the schools' safety. "It's been demonstrated there's a lack of planning for incidents that carry a potential for violence," she said.

She also criticized the schools' unwillingness to discipline the boys for their actions.

"They could have explained that this was harmful for the child involved and set examples for someone who might try to do something in the future," she said.

Sander wants children to get a message he says the schools haven't sent yet.

"The attitude seems to this point to be: No big deal," he said. "To me this was a big deal."