A group of Tamaqua Area High School students walked out of school late Friday morning as a form of peaceful protest about the bullying and reported hazing in the district..

Alec Hulko, a Tamaqua sophomore, is one of the students who organized the event.

“There was about 40 people in our group chat,” Hulko said. “Spread of mouth went pretty well. A lot of people showed up at the start. ... but there is a lot of people who said they would show, and did not.”

The students left the high school, which encompasses almost 700 students, and walked down to West Spruce Street by the Stadium Hill Cafe. The walkout comes a week after a reported incident that caused Tamaqua to forfeit its District 11 Class 3A football semifinal game against North Schuylkill.

“Given certain things have not happened yet, I do believe certain things should be sped up, but other things should be held carefully,” Hulko added regarding the pace of the ongoing investigations of the incident.

According to School Board President Larry Wittig, the incident happened around 6:30 p.m. last Thursday.

“In terms of expediency of addressing the alleged issue, by 11 p.m. that night, there was a meeting between police, administration and the parents,” Wittig said.

Wittig added that interviews were conducted on Friday, Saturday and Monday.

Since then, at least three Tamaqua students have been suspended. School Board Vice President Nicholas Boyle said within the next 10 days, from Monday, hearings on the matter will begin in front of the board’s hearing committee.

“Basically, there will be three members of the board present. An accused person can call witnesses, they can have it open to the public, or keep it private - they have the right to those options, that’s their choice,” Boyle, chairman of the committee, said.

“Then, the committee will deliberate - find them guilty or innocent and then come up with a punishment (if necessary).”

Rumors and allegations regarding last week’s incident have been circling locally and throughout social media, speculating the severity and details of the incident. Earlier this week, Tamaqua police said an investigation was ongoing.

Angela O’Donnell, a TASD parent, said she helped organize Friday’s walkout. O’Donnell noted she was involved with the event because her son was recently assaulted on a school bus.

“The only thing this school seems to care about is its image, and it’s only when you threaten to taint that image, that they start taking you serious,” she said.

“I’ve seen comments on Facebook of locals, who say it’s just a child’s game - part of hazing. So it’s really telling you that the community and culture of this is deep rooted,” O’Donnell added, regarding last week’s incident.

O’Donnell said since she has been actively posting on Facebook, about a dozen parents or former students reached out to her about prior incidents.

“I think it (the investigation) should be moving faster. But what I was even more concerned about, is that these students were allowed to walk around among the other students after the incident. It wasn’t until we took to social media, and we were like. 'hey,' this isn’t cool, that the students were removed for their safety - not for the safety of the victims, the safety of other students, for their personal safety.”

Tamaqua junior Johnathan Nunemacher recently moved to the district and said he has been bullied multiple times. He participated in the walkout on Friday.

“I just moved here and I’m already getting harassed by all of these people and I’m getting beat up. ... It’s not just with me, it’s with a bunch of other kids at the school, too. It affects a lot of people in certain ways. Some kids, they don’t even want to go to school anymore. ... Some people just stay at home and skip school,” Nunemacher said.

According to the National Center for Education, 2019 statistics illustrate that 20% of students reported being bullied, and 41% of students who reported being bullied, thought it would happen again.

“Unfortunately, in our society, we as people don’t always treat each other like we should,” said Ray Kinder, Tamaqua superintendent. “That happens in the home, it happens on the playgrounds and it happens in schools. And while no incident is always addressed in the manner that everyone wants, we do our best to address every incident that is brought to us according to our policies, procedures and the law.”

Kinder didn’t provide an exact number of students who walked out.

Nunemacher wanted other bullied students to know they’re not alone.

“There is no need of it. You shouldn’t be doing stuff to other kids because they're a certain way,” added Nunemacher. “Do your own thing, and let them do their own thing. (We wanted) to make it known that you’re not the only ones, we’re here fighting for you guys.”