Photo by NCinDC.

A few weeks ago six Dunbar High School students were arrested for the sexual assault of a fellow student, and subsequently released with no explanation. This week, DCPS Interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson ousted Friends of Bedford, the private firm that had been running the school. Now, the Washington Post’s D.C. School Insider blog published a saddening account of the neglect, lack of accountability, and pervasive bullying at the high school.

Bill Turque talks to Jessica Lilly, a young Teach for America recruit at Dunbar who recently left the school. Her stories about the lack of discipline are often hard to read. “She said she wrote up a girl who aimed her iPhone at a classmate and used the app with a scarily realistic sound of gunshots. Her co-teacher reported a student who threw furniture at other students during testing, but nothing was done.”

Lilly’s account of the administration’s and student body’s response following the sexual assault arrests are equally troubling. Expecting students to be out of sorts and counselors to be called in to help the students cope with the incident, she instead found only increased security measures and not a student body struggling with the incident, but rather one ready to pounce. She describes students threatening to beat up the victim, denying that the event ever happened, or saying that she really wanted it. After the school’s response to the sexual assault, Lilly resigned her position.

It’s especially troubling to see a school that once was a point of pride for D.C. residents now in such a state of neglect. Hopefully firing Friends of Bedford will be the first step in improving the school.