A horrific video circulating among youth in Anchorage of a student being beaten up by a group at Clark Middle School is the latest example of violence at the Anchorage campus, which has a reputation for student fights and brawls.
Clark Middle School, located in Mountain View, is in one of the most racially diverse campuses in Alaska; 93% of the student body is from a racial minority, predominantly Pacific Islander; 7% are white.
The victim in Tuesday’s assault was a white 14-year-old who was in the middle of gym class near the end of the school day.
The assailants, who appear to be mixed-Pacific Islanders, approached the girl with purpose in what looks like a planned, coordinated attack that involved punching, hair pulling, and when she was on the ground, she was kicked several times before a teacher intervened. It is unclear if this attack is a racially motivated hate crime.
The attackers were not part of the class that was in session in the gym but had been released early from their class and went to the gym, where the victim was still in class.
Must Read Alaska has learned that the girl was badly bruised on her head, face, arms, and ribs, and ended up in the hospital for x-rays and a CAT scan to be sure there were no internal injuries. The girl has spent the rest of the week on bedrest at home.
According to the parent interviewed by Must Read Alaska, the bullying of the girl has intensified since she transferred to Clark from Hanshew Middle School in January. The transfer was the result of the parent having been in a serious accident after her vehicle was t-boned and she was unable to get her child to Hanshew, whereas Clark is near where they live. As a new student, the girl entered the campus with no friends in the middle of the school year. Gangs of girls targeted her for harassment, leading her to sometimes hide in places around campus after she was told by students that attackers were looking for her to “jump” her. The harassment led to a full-on smack on the girl’s face in the weeks leading up to the group’s premeditated attack on Tuesday, videotaped by several students.
The mother of the victim said she reached out to the teachers on several occasions, and also asked to speak to the principal and guidance counselor, and finally was able to meet with them to express the danger that the escalating situation. But the response from teachers and the principal were inadequate to protect the girl. The mother said she was the one who called the police.
Watch the video here; be warned of the brutal nature of the attack and screaming:
The mother of the victim was actually outside the school during the attack, waiting to pick up her daughter at the end of the school day. She witnessed the attackers running from campus but was not aware at the time that they had just beat up her daughter.
The video is the type of activity often posted on social media, particularly on school fight channels on TikTok, Twitter and in groups on SnapChat.
Increasingly, students in schools across the country are recording these assaults for social media fame. There’s even a Clark Middle School fight channel on TikTok; others in Anchorage also have TikTok fight channels — Romig, Mears, and Wendler, for example.
This video has not yet emerged on social media. But others from Clark Middle School have in the past.
On Friday, Must Read Alaska asked the Anchorage School District for a statement on the assault and whether the assailants will be held accountable. The response from district headquarters was a request for the video, and an hour later the district wrote that there is an active police investigation and two students have been charged with assault. Several hours later on Friday — three days after the assault — the principal of Clark Middle School sent a note to parents with the same message.
Clark Middle School has a history of student violence. On April 18, 2023, the school was placed in lockdown after a group of teenagers got into a brawl. Ten Anchorage police officers responded to break up the fight that was now between both the student groups, and students and campus security officers. Some of the fighters were high school teenagers who were called in by friends for reinforcement.
