NASHUA – District Superintendent Jahmal Mosley said the Nashua High School North students suspended for leaving the cafeteria to observe a fight on Monday “began to mock the administrator” instead of following instructions to return to their assigned area.

“Blatantly ignoring administration’s directives made it more difficult for administration, security and the school resource officer (SRO) to control the situation and to restore order to the school,” Mosley stated in a letter emailed to The Telegraph at 7:46 p.m. Friday.

On Thursday, Heath Gaffney, father of two sons who attend Nashua High School North, said one of his boys received a one-day suspension for leaving the cafeteria to witness a fight involving other students on Monday. Gaffney said he believed approximately 30 students received this punishment for moving to observe the confrontation.

Throughout the day Thursday, The Telegraph attempted to reach school officials for comment regarding the matter, but the efforts proved unsuccessful. Late Friday, Mosley issued his prepared statement.

“The North administration handled the situation appropriately, and each administrator has my full and unequivocal support with the manner in which they addressed the incident. Any criticism about the manner in which the incident was handled and ensuing disciplinary actions should be directed to me personally either by phone or email,” Mosley wrote.

Mosley lists his office phone number as 603-966-1003. His email address is mosleyj@nashua.edu.

Mosley said the Monday incident began as a “verbal altercation” involving students who had already been warned to stay away from one another. According to his account of the events, administrators then separated these students and removed them through doors on opposite sides of the cafeteria. At that point, however, a third student ran toward one of these students to continue the altercation. This led to a third administrator intervening to prevent this confrontation.

Mosley said at that point, “a number” of students began to leave the cafeteria to see what was happening.

“One of the administrators and a security officer repeatedly gave commands for the students to go back into the cafeteria. Their requests were not just ignored, but this group of students began to mock the administrator,” Mosley stated.

Eventually, officials successfully organized the situation. Mosley said fighting will not be tolerated by the Nashua School District.

“This incident saddens me on a multitude of levels, as we are better than this,” he wrote.

“If someone yells at you, or disrespects you–please walk away. I know that this is not easy, but as Titans and Panthers, this is what we do and how we act. This is who we are. We fight for social justice; we fight for the proliferation of kindness,” Mosley added.