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Syracuse students respond to negative public comments about high school after stabbing

Corcoran High School
A still from "The Corcoran Savannah."

Students at Corcoran High School in the city of Syracuse made a video in response to a recent stabbing of a teacher at the school by a student. The students reacted to a number of negative comments online about the school.

A substitute teacher was stabbed after trying to break up a fight at the school in May. A 17-year-old was arrested and charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

Students in Corcoran’s International Baccalaureate theatre class made a video for their final project that opens with them reading a series of comments made on social media and syracuse.com after the incident took place. Some of the comments read were: “typical future thugs,” “hood rat central,” and “animals, just let them kill each other.”

One student then proceeds to mockingly show how the “animals” live by taking viewers on a tour of what they called the “Corcoran Savannah.”

“This is by far one of the wildest places on planet Earth," the student said. "Where hundreds of species live and thrive as they all struggle for survival.”

The message students said they want to get across to the public is that the school has passionate teachers and hard-working, college-bound students.

“We will not allow you to simplify us into a villainous stereotype. We will not allow our Corcoran family to be slandered by the violent acts of a few.”

In response to the incident, Syracuse City School District officials have reviewed emergency protocols with Corcoran administrators and school security. The principal of Corcoran has also modified some of the responsibilities of staff in the school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2NsnBs8BA8

Tom Magnarelli is a reporter covering the central New York and Syracuse area. He joined WRVO as a freelance reporter in 2012 while a student at Syracuse University and was hired full time in 2015. He has reported extensively on politics, education, arts and culture and other issues around central New York.