MIDDLETOWN - Nearly 30 high school seniors were suspended for two days after holding a morning barbecue on the grounds at the high school Tuesday.
According to parents of some children involved in the breakfast party, 28 students participated and were subsequently told they would not be welcome on campus for the next couple days.
Superintendent Michael Frechette was unable to confirm or comment on details of the incident Tuesday, as he was unaware it had taken place, he said.
Principal Robert Fontaine did not return calls on the matter.
Anthony and Dawn Hinton were among the slew of parents summoned to the school Tuesday morning to pick up their children.
The Hinton's son, Kris, was one of the students involved.
Tuesday evening, some of the group - now known as the Breakfast Club after being so dubbed by a high school security guard - proudly showed off the propane-powered grill they were using before they were ushered to the principal's office and dismissed from school.
They joked about the incident and admitted disappointment they had not gotten around to cooking eggs before the powers that be put an end to the merrymaking - a birthday celebration for Mike Aronne, one of the teens involved.
According to grill-owner Kyle Sheehan, most of the seniors had late arrival and were not expected in school until 9:30, so they met in the lot at around 8:30, set up the grill and chilled, as the aroma of bacon wafted through the morning air.
"We didn't have beer, we didn't have weed, we had bacon," said Eddie Mangini, who along with the others did not anticipate the two-day suspension.
The students asserted the gathering was quiet and at least a football field away from the school, so could not have been a disruption to underclassmen endeavoring to learn.
None of the students expected to get in trouble, they said.
"The reason why we didn't expect it was because it wasn't really even a party, we were just in a small group outside," Kyle said. "A small group talking, not being loud, not being dangerous ... We were just cooking bacon."
Furthermore, students insisted outdoor barbecues are a normal end-of-year, on-campus activity among graduating seniors and said the only difference was this was done at the beginning of the year.
"They do it almost every year," Kyle said. "In past years teachers have been involved ... They would come out and get a piece of bacon and go back in and nobody got in any trouble."
Parents were equally mystified.
"Even the principal said they did it before," Anthony Hinton said. "They were cooking eggs and bacon. We don't know the policy that was broken ... [Kris] did not know that there's a policy against cooking in the parking lot."
Students added they were not warned to disperse or told to put the grill away before being served sentences. "There was no warning," Kris said. "They just came out and told us to go straight in house."
Parents said they believe the children were misbehaving by grilling on school grounds, but wonder at the severity of the consequence. They tried to get an explanation from Fontaine on why the punishment was so stern but were unsuccessful.
"He just kind of blew us off," Anthony Hinton said. "Don't you think that's a little harsh?"
Parent Gary Behm concurred the two-day suspension was too much while Sebastian Gentile said he would have preferred if the suspension had been an in-house verses off-campus punishment.
"I mean they didn't do anything wrong, they were just having fun to have a little cookout," Gentile said. "I think it was right that they got suspended because they didn't have the okay. The fact that they were sent home ... Keep the kids in school and have them do something."
Hinton agreed the students would have better learned their lesson if they were given some community service or clean-up in the school parking lot. However, one day of such chores would have been sufficient, he said.
"Have them pick up trash on Green Street," Hinton said. "Two hours community service and clean up in the North End."
"Most of them admitted it was a foolish thing to do," Behm said. "I mean a detention or cleaning project would have been a more useful and fitting punishment."
Behm fears how the incident will appear on student's applications to colleges.
"I believe they should have it removed from their records," he said.
