By DOUG HARLOW
Staff Writer Wednesday, May 23, 2007

enlarge Staff photo by David Leaming

PROTEST: Skowhegan Area High School students Julian Oakes, center, Mark Ferretti, right, and others recently suspended from school protest at the entrance to the school on Tuesday.

enlarge Staff photo by David Leaming

GROWING CONCERN: Skowhegan Area High School Principal Richard Wilson will meet with a pair of students today in hopes of ending tensions between a group calling itself the Carnival Killers and other students.

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The meeting is set for 7:15 a.m. in the office of Principal Richard Wilson. Skowhegan police will be on hand to ensure that order prevails, acting Police Chief Rick Bonneau said Tuesday.

Julian Oakes, a Skowhegan junior and self-described spokesman for Students Against Gangs In School, a group that demonstrated again Tuesday outside the school, said a list of demands will be posted to stop another group of students who call themselves the Carnival Killers.

The first demand, he said, is that the Carnival Killers disband.

"We want them split up, and we want the gang themselves to say they are not a gang -- we want them to denounce themselves," Oakes said outside the school on West River Road. "They said they are a gang, and we want them to denounce themselves."

Oakes was among more than 30 students suspended for insubordination following a protest last week.

"Wilson, our principal, he's not doing anything about these kids in school, so we had a sit-in Thursday ... we got suspended for it, and we're going to keep doing it until he does something about it."

Student protesters were out for a third day in front of the high school on Tuesday, claiming with T-shirts and placards that administrators are allowing the Carnival Killers to bully and threaten other students.

Protesters, who return to school today following a three-day suspension, said they feared reprisal from members of the Carnival Killers. Today's meeting is scheduled between Oakes and Justin Longevin, a senior, the self-described leader of the Carnival Killers.

Wilson, who previously was assistant principal at Portland High School, said he is reluctant to brand the group a "gang."

"I think there's an issue," he said. "But I don't think there's a gang. The issue is miscommunication. It's what most people go through in most schools -- different people in different groups hang with friends that are similar and sometimes, because of a lack of understanding, it becomes personal."

He said rumors have caused more trouble at the school than actual events.

Wilson said a gang by definition is a group with violent intentions, a definition he believes the Carnival Killers group does not meet.

But Oakes and his fellow protesters disagree, saying a group that dresses in black, dyes their hair black and purple, wears chains and makeup and has taken such a violent moniker is a gang, plain and simple.

According to members of Students Against Gangs In School, Carnival Killers members spit on passers-by in school corridors, threaten and intimidate other students and block their way.

They said the Carnival Killers listen to and pattern themselves after a heavy-metal/rap group called Insane Clown Posse, whose songs are graphically violent and obscene.

They say Wilson is downplaying the problem.

Wilson, however, said he is handling the situation as it should be handled. He said he has contacted the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence in Portland for assistance if necessary.

The principal said he welcomes the meeting with Oakes and Longevin.

"Do I think there are issues between kids? Yes. I am not downplaying that," Wilson said. "But I have not had people come to me and say a person did an action to me."

He said he had never heard of allegations against the Carnival Killers before the protests began Thursday. He said both sides are claiming abuse from the other side.

The student protesters said an incident at the Skowhegan Recreation Center on Monday that involved the confiscation of knives and swords by police was an indication that the Carnival Killers should be taken seriously by school administrators and not dismissed as innocent.

Wilson said only one of those involved in the Recreation Center incident was a Skowhegan high school student.

Longevin, the leader of the Carnival Killers, said in an interview last week that group members have never brought knives to school. He said the Killers are being targeted because of their "gothic" look with the dyed hair and the dark clothing.

Longevin said he "invented this gang" to help "nerds" and other people who get pushed around.

Wilson declined to permit students in the Carnival Killers group to be interviewed Tuesday at the school.

Wilson said the problems appeared to have started when the Carnival killers were moved from the main corridor to an outdoor, grassy area because their sheer numbers amounted to an obstruction when they met to talk each morning. He said the group has been cooperative.

When recent bad weather drove the group back inside, they were moved to a section that had previously been set aside for juniors and their lockers. Wilson said that was when the tension began.

"With the weather so bad, that's where the kids started hanging out -- it never entered my mind that it was an 'area,' " Wilson said. "And I noticed the tension; it was different from what had been -- here are these people who are different here -- what's going on?"

Doug Harlow -- 861-9244

dharlow@centralmaine.com