Haven update: Ambulance also called for allegedly intoxicated student

Evanston Police Department officers responded to the scene at Haven Middle School Thursday morning shortly after 9 am after getting calls of a “rather large disturbance” where a teacher suffered injuries, according to EPD Interim Chief Richard Eddington.

At that point, Evanston Emergency Medical services treated the teacher and transported her to a local hospital, and EPD officers determined that the injured teacher was “inadvertently knocked down” amid a fight that resulted in a “mad scramble,” Eddington told the RoundTable on Friday. After securing the building, Haven and District 65 administrators asked to handle the rest of the situation on their own, so EPD left the building.

But just hours later, the school called Evanston Fire Department paramedics again due to “suspicion of a student that was intoxicated,” according to Eddington. An ambulance arrived for that student, but EFD later called for EPD officers because another student was interfering with the treatment and transportation of the intoxicated student.

“To put this in context, the student that was intervening was probably taller and heavier than I am,” Eddington said. “I happen to be a towering 5’9. The young man was bigger than that, became belligerent, was asked multiple times to just leave. He was trying to interfere, and when it became clear that he was not going to leave, at that point in time, the officers took him into custody and transported him to the police station. “

Once EPD removed the interfering student from the scene, the student being treated by EMS was transported to the hospital and checked for an impairment level. Eddington said he could not share more details at the moment because of a pending investigation into the situation, but the student taken into police custody will now be referred to the state attorney’s office for review regarding a potential juvenile court case.

Jayson Lim, the Haven hallway monitor who also went to the hospital due to injuries sustained trying to break up a fight less than two weeks ago, told the RoundTable on Friday that he is in touch with lawyers and working on pressing charges against the student who punched him. The school suspended that student for two days, according to Lim.

“We’re in an extremely stressful time for many people, and I think that with the series of events from pandemic to Omicron to difficult economic times with inflation and the stress that’s putting on family budgets, I think all those things have a cumulative effect , ”Eddington said. “And those young people and adults who find themselves in a stressful family situation are more inclined to act out at this time.”

When reflecting on ways to help schools address safety concerns, Eddington said the decision to take school resource officers out of Evanston’s middle schools was probably not “completely thought through.” SROs are still in place at Evanston Township High School, which has not seen as much of an uptick in violent fights or calls to the police department, according to the interim chief.