Board of Education meeting over mascot ends with a fight

By Olivia Kalentek, Roger Susanin, Rob Polansky, Marcy Jones

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    GLASTONBURY, Connecticut (WFSB) — A fight broke out at a Board of Education meeting in Glastonbury over changing the school’s mascot.

The altercation was caught on video Tuesday night.

According to video, the fight broke out between board of education member Ray McFall and a Glastonbury resident.

The two people involved stood nearly nose-to-nose for an argument. It happened during a recess. Seconds later, McFall could be seen pushing the man who then punched McFall in the face with so much force that McFall fell to the ground.

In the chaotic seconds that followed, people separated the two.

The board pulled the plug on the meeting at that point.

Many agree the two men involved were like children rather than adults.

“Is it really in the best interest for the kids to be going tit for tat like that?” Glastonbury resident Olivia Jenkins asked.

“I think people are getting more bolder today, just with everything going on, everyone’s in everybody’s face today. It’s crazy,” Steven Piersa of Glastonbury said.

Folks Eyewitness News spoke with say they attribute to the flare in tempers to today’s pressure-filled climate.

“With everything that’s going on and everybody’s directing how to live their life, what you should be doing, ‘Oh, that’s not acceptable’, you know, everyone’s getting pushed up in a corner and, eventually, people are going to lash out,” Piersa noted.

“People are over it. People are over the pandemic. People are over politics. I think too, there’s just a lot going on, that it’s crazy,” Jenkins added.

The meeting was held to discuss reverting the school’s mascot back to the tomahawk. Last year, the district got rid of its tomahawk logo and replaced it with a “guardians” mascot.

The reason for the meeting was that a petition argued that the public didn’t get enough input in the decision-making process since in-person meetings didn’t happen in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There was no decision on Tuesday night due to the meeting’s abrupt end.

Wednesday morning, the focus of the people in Glastonbury appeared to be on the punch, not the logo.

Superintendent Alan Bookman sent a statement to the school community.

“[Tuesday] night the Board of Education held a Public Hearing on a petition to restore the Glastonbury High School Tomahawk mascot. After the public hearing closed, the Board called for a 10-minute recess. An incident occurred during the recess which resulted in the Board adjourning the meeting without voting on the matter.

The Board of Education welcomes public comment and appreciates that there will always be passionate testimony when controversial issues are considered. But it is critical that we listen to each other with respect and follow meeting rules so that everyone can be heard.

Future meetings will be posted on our Board of Education Meetings page, as always. We welcome your continued participation.”

No charges have been filed yet.

Glastonbury police have only called it a disturbance at the high school. They said they are currently investigating what happened.

Those involved are choosing not to publicly comment on the scuffle.

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