CITY OF PERTH AMBOY / PERTH AMBOY BOARD OF EDUCATION

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

The City of Perth Amboy, the Perth Amboy Police Department, and the administration and Board of Education of the Perth Amboy Public Schools jointly condemn and will not tolerate acts of violence against any community members, especially our children.

We request that news outlets and individuals refrain from spreading misinformation regarding the investigation actively being conducted by law enforcement into an incident that occurred on the afternoon of February 22, 2023. A Perth Amboy student was assaulted and seriously injured near his home while walking home from school. The student is currently hospitalized. The incident did not occur on school grounds.

The events that occurred on Wednesday involving two young students at the start of their adolescence is a tragedy. Every community member, youth, parent, educator, and resident feels it. Anytime an incident involves an injury to a child, emotions rise as it is a fundamental part of our human consciousness.

The City of Perth Amboy and the Perth Amboy Board of Education stand jointly committed to listening to everyone’s concerns, which requires a multi-faceted approach. We have to work together to provide a set of interventions and solutions that will work for our students, and that requires putting an array of services in place, including having our community police officers and juvenile bureau work with staff in and outside of the school including mental health services, counseling, and peer-to-peer interventions. We want our students to feel safe and supported, and we will exhaust all efforts to support this process. We must remain focused on working together and in solidarity to ensure our youth’s thriving future.

The safety and security of our entire community, including our students, their families and staff, is of utmost importance to every single administrator in this District; to every single member of this Board of Education and to every single representative of the City of Perth Amboy. For anyone to assert otherwise is disingenuous and self-serving. It is disheartening that certain individuals have taken it upon themselves to make unfounded assertions about this incident and assumptions about the children of this community. This is a disservice to our students and their excellent teachers and educators, who have dedicated their lives to instructing and caring for our young people.

We want to thank our entire community for the support you have given law enforcement, the City of Perth Amboy, the Board of Education, all their staff and most importantly, our students.