When her daughter said she was bullied by fellow students at High Desert Middle School, Toreen Taylor armed the teenager with pepper spray. She wanted to give her daughter, Leah, 14, the ability to defend herself.

And she did.

On Jan. 25, Leah was walking toward the main office when a student grabbed her hair from behind, according to district records her mother provided to The Bulletin. Leah was thrown to the ground. Some of her hair was ripped out. Her head was slammed into a locker.

Leah fought back. She released pepper spray in a crowded school hallway. Multiple students and staffers were affected. Police and emergency personnel were called.

The district didn’t disclose the assault on Leah when it issued a press release that day about the pepper spray incident because it was still under investigation, officials said. But it was one of many incidents like it that are happening in Bend-La Pine Schools.

The district recorded 273 incidents of fights and battery — physical attack and harm — in the 2022-23 school year. It’s the third year in a row of increases and the highest total since the 2018-19 school year, when 244 incidents were reported.

The increase is a clear result of the pandemic, when students weren’t attending school in-person. One reason incidents may have increased is that district officials are more accurate in recording them, said Scott Maben, a district spokesman.

While some students and local officials say that violent incidents among youths in schools are not a major concern, they note that many youths are still struggling with their mental health and the long-term affects of the pandemic.

”What is kind of out of control … is the stress and anxiety and depression and kids not being able to function in the classroom,” said Jen Sawyer, a campus monitor at Caldera High School. “There’s a whole lot more than just the fighting.”

Fights have raised concern among officials and families and underscore an ongoing debate over how best to support and discipline youths.

”I don’t think it should be normalized. I don’t think it is normalized,” said Eleni Adams, an 18-year-old Summit High School senior.

However, she added: “I don’t think suspending a kid will help them or anything like that … Keeping them integrated in the school community is so important.”

District administrators say they are creating positive environments for students to learn and are building stronger relationships and social connections with students and staff. But they acknowledge that fights happen despite their best efforts.

“Any fight is one too many in our schools,” Superintendent Steve Cook said in an interview with The Bulletin.

Cook believes the district’s data on fights and battery is accurate, but said there are few incidents as severe as the one that happened at High Desert.

Incidents are increasing county-wide

Similar trends are are being seen by Deschutes County Juvenile Community Justice, which handles the cases of serious youth offenders. The Bulletin obtained data for a variety of incidents reported to the juvenile department, including disorderly conduct, harassment, assault, menacing and strangulation.

These cases have increased in recent years, going from 104 in 2021 to 146 in 2022 to 167 last year, the data showed.

Not all of these cases are handled the same way, with youths receiving different consequences and supportive measures.

• Last year, 47 incidents resulted in formal accountability agreements, which means youths agree to certain conditions instead of having their case filed in court.

• Twenty-four resulted in probation.

• Three resulted in kids being incarcerated in a youth correctional facility, the most serious consequence possible.

• Other cases resulted in dismissals, warnings, sanctions and more.

Sonya Littledeer-Evans, the juvenile department’s deputy director, said that officials look at a variety of factors when deciding how a case should be handled. This includes the harm caused, criminal history and the potential to reoffend. That’s important, she said, because it helps maintain a balance between discipline and supporting youths, many of whom may be struggling in their day-to-day lives.

“It’s definitely not black and white,” she said.

She acknowledged that the number of incidents have increased as the community has come out of the pandemic, but said she is not concerned. She said a number of factors could be causing the increase, and higher numbers don’t necessarily mean worsening behavior.

“At one school, you could have two students get in a fight and no one’s hurt, and there’s no law enforcement called, it’s handled in the school,” said Littledeer-Evans. “And then another school, you can have a fight, and law enforcement’s called and they get cited and sent to us.”

District educators try to help students

Eric Powell, Bend-La Pine Schools’ assistant director of student services, said students are given support depending their level of need.

Officials seek to build relationships and help students gain skills to stop conflict before it happens. They check in on students who are struggling, perhaps with academics or attendance, he said. In addition, peer mediation can help students talk to one another to work out their problems.

Often, school resource officers, who are uniformed police officers, respond to fights. Additional officers can be called for serious situations, said Powell.

District officials pointed to a program called Bridge for Resilient Youth in Transition as an effort to help students. In the program, students who are overwhelmed can calm down and focus before going back to class.

Less than 10% of incidents each year are at the level of the pepper spray incident at High Desert Middle School, said Powell. The incidents range in severity, from a quick tussle between kindergartners to a full assault.

Leah’s case

The Bulletin corroborated Leah Taylor’s account with her mother, two people close to the students involved, district records and an excerpt of a police report provided by Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels.

During the pepper spray incident at High Desert Middle School, officials called police and emergency medical responders, and a nurse helped students rinse the irritant out of their eyes.

“The way they responded to the pepper spray incident to de-escalate the situation, remove students from harm’s way and attend to students and staff immediately affected was commendable,” said Maben, district spokesman.

After teachers separated the students, Leah was taken to St. Charles Bend. Her medical records from the appointment say she suffered an “assault,” “head injury,” “whiplash injury to neck” and a “concussion.”

Police investigated the incident and provided records to the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office. Ultimately, authorities said Leah’s use of pepper spray was self defense and “appears to be a direct response to being assaulted,” according to an excerpt from a police report.

Two of the students involved in Leah’s incident received formal accountability agreements. The Bulletin will not name the other students because they are minors. Efforts to reach some of their family members were unsuccessful.

Incidents like these can have lasting effects on families and students.

In Leah’s case, she cut off about eight inches of her hair a few days after the fight. She was transferred to Cascade Middle School, but said she has been bullied for her use of pepper spray and struggles with stress, she said.

“I was humiliated, because I was in front of the whole school, just humiliated,” said Leah. Now, she added: “I always feel like I’m on my toes, because I don’t know who I can trust.”

Pepper spray is considered a weapon by Bend-La Pine Schools and other school districts. Having it on school grounds is against district policy and can be grounds for discipline. After meeting with district officials, Leah was placed on a district probationary period, she said.

Alicia Wise, the mother of another student involved, questioned whether it was right for Toreen Taylor to give her daughter pepper spray, noting that school officials are there to try and keep them safe.

“I just think it’s ridiculous,” she said.

Leah knew she wasn’t supposed to have pepper spray on campus, but she had seen fights around school. She felt she had no other choice. They didn’t feel that school officials could protect her all the time and she needed some way to protect herself.

Her mother said she doesn’t regret giving her daughter the pepper spray.

“I didn’t want her to get hurt,” Toreen Taylor said of her daughter, adding: “She’s never been in a fight and the last thing I would want is for her to get beat down.”

As public school enrollment in Bend drops, private and homeschooling are on the rise