Big mistake by school officials, moments before bat beating at Newport school

A vicious beating with a baseball bat inside a middle school in Newport could’ve been avoided if not for a huge mistake by school officials the morning of the attack.

In the end, two brothers, 14 and 12, sent another 14 year-old student at Thompson Middle School to the hospital after beating him with a baseball bat in the hallway.

During a public meeting Wednesday night, we learned the two brothers did it because the older brother was being bullied.

ABC 6 spoke with George and Danielle Ogarro, the parents of the two brothers, who admit their boys did not handle the situation the right way but said their kids were being bullied by the student and reported it to the school.

What makes matters worse, right before the attack at around 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 6, school administrators sat down with a student to talk about the bullying, but administrators were talking to the wrong kid.

A public meeting was held with dozens of parents to talk about how the school can prevent something like this from happening again in the future.

The meeting was contentious and emotional, especially for the Ogarro family.

They said the whole thing came to a head two days before their boys attacked the other student.

“The child was at my house and tried to assault my son,” said Danielle. “He was bullied into a friendship.”

“My son came up to me and said ‘Dad, can you please tell my friend to leave the house,” the boys’ father, George, said. “These are good kids. They go to school. They got good grades. They never had no [sic] problems before this.”

The Ogarro’s claim the boy began shouting in their home but eventually left. After the incident, their oldest son was being threatened by the student and the family went to school officials the day before the attack to report it.

“I thought it was going to be handled between the parents and with the school,” George said. “We already told them what was going on.”

Superintendent of Newport Public Schools Colleen Burn Jermain confirms to ABC 6 that bullying was reported relating to the incident last week.

In fact, school administrators addressed the issue that morning by speaking with a student about the bullying. The only problem was, according to Jermain, is that the administrators were talking to the wrong kid while the beating was unfolding.

“The assistant principal at the time of the incident was going with another counselor to address the student with a very similar name when the incident occurred,” she said. “And they realized it was the other student.”

Jermain said the parents gave the wrong last name of the student, but the Ogarro’s completely disagreed.

Another problem other parents had at the meeting was the fact that most did not find out about the brutal attack until their kids arrived home from school.

Jermain is pledging better communication in the future if another incident were to ever happen again. She is also contemplating the idea of adding metal detectors in the school, as the student who was beat up had a weapon on him.

The Ogarro’s boys are facing felony charges and are suspended from school.