It was supposed to be a night of celebration for an Anchor Bay High School student who had just turned 17 and planned to go out with some friends following an off-campus hockey game last week.

Instead, the teen found himself the victim of a beating after being jumped in the parking lot by students from another school district that resulted in severe injuries.

And now, officials in the Anchor Bay School District and other school communities are considering security improvements for hockey games both inside and outside the ice arena.

“We as a district don’t tolerate this type of behavior from our students and those we are competing against,” Patrick Green, president of the Anchor Bay school board, said at a Wednesday school board meeting. “It is not acceptable.”

The incident took place Feb. 19 after a state playoff game between the Anchor Bay Tars and L’Anse Creuse Unified teams at Suburban Ice Arena in Macomb Township.

The teen’s mother and two other women attended Wednesday’s Anchor Bay board meeting demanding changes in security. They say there were no security personnel or school administrators present in the parking area as the crowd was leaving, despite rowdy behavior displayed during the game.

“If not for three brave students who stepped up to pull the attackers off my son, while being struck themselves, this could have been fatal,” the mother said, asking for anonymity to protect her son from retaliating incidents. “This could have been him in the ICU.”

According to the teen’s mother, he was exiting the facility when he accidentally bumped into a L’Anse Creuse student in the lobby. The L’Anse Creuse student took offense, despite an apology from the Anchor Bay teen. The mother and others said up to seven L’Anse Creuse students surrounded the teen in the parking lot, where they each punched and stomped him before being interrupted by Anchor Bay and DeLaSalle students.

Injuries suffered

The Anchor Bay teen, a high school junior who has missed several days of school since the beating, suffered numerous injuries, including a concussion, multiple contusions on his head, bruising and swelling to his face, eyes, and ears, and a bloody nose and battered lip, his mom said. The Macomb Daily is not naming the teen or his family members for their safety.

The teen, described by his mother as “the most kind, respectful kid, who doesn’t have a confrontational bones in his body,” was driven to an area hospital that night for medical treatment. He suffered not only physical injuries but was emotionally traumatized, his mother reported.

“The fact that this happened at a school sponsored event is unacceptable,” the teen’s mom said at the board meeting. “This is unacceptable. No parent should have to send their child to a school game only to have them return bloody and traumatized.”

A number of witnesses captured the incident on their cellphone video, she added.

A report was filed with the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office, which is actively investigating, according to department spokesperson Jennifer Putney. The investigation has been somewhat slowed by the number of alleged participants and witnesses.

Putney said the sheriff’s office, which handles policing in Macomb Township, was not contacted by Suburban Ice or school officials to work that game.

Anchor Bay school officials are conducting an internal investigation, said Superintendent Phil Jankowski.

AB board considers changes

Headquartered in St. Clair County’s Casco Township, the 5,400-student district includes all of New Baltimore and portions of Chesterfield Township in Macomb County, as well as southern St. Clair County.

According to Anchor Bay’s superintendent, the state playoff hockey game was hosted by Romeo Community Schools. As host, Romeo was in charge of organizing the event and providing supervision and security, Jankowski said. Anchor Bay had administrators in attendance, but the altercation took place outside the arena.

Jankowski said officials are talking to other districts that use the arena to improve supervision and security.

“We have spoken to Romeo about sharing the cost of providing a police officer if one is available in the future, with the goal to work together to provide better supervision for these events,” he said in an email. “The main suggestion we have made at this point is to have the cost of a sheriff built into the cost of the ice time, that way everyone is sharing equally in the added cost.”

Romeo Athletic Director Cody Smith called the beating an “absolutely unfortunate incident.”

“I was on site as well as other staff members and parent volunteer security for the games. We were not in the parking lot. We had people within the rink blocking areas of the rink by the locker rooms for fans not to enter,” he wrote in an email.

Smith added Anchor Bay and L’Anse Creuse were also responsible for monitoring the behavior of their own students. Anchor Bay had three administrators at the game, officials said.

The Anchor Bay school board on Wednesday directed the administration to come up with a security plan not only for hockey, but for all sporting events, beginning with the upcoming spring season. The directive includes asking other districts what their safety procedures for athletic events consists of.

Green, the school board president, said Anchor Bay may consider not competing at venues that have a known history on unruly behavior.

“If we’re not feeling comfortable and are concerned going to a place that traditionally is very volatile, don’t feel like you have to,” he said. “Is that what we want as a school district? Absolutely not. We want to continue, but if we feel that it’s not safe, I don’t want to go there.”

Green apologized to the mother on the district’s behalf.

“We need to figure out how we as a district get around those barriers to protect our students,” he said. “Our job is to educate and protect.”

What the MHSAA says

If Anchor Bay doesn’t show up for a scheduled hockey game, it will be reported in the record books as a forfeit, according to the Michigan High School Athletic Association.

When it comes to security, the MHSAA’s manager manual states “each participating school is required to have present at all MHSAA Tournament hockey games the principal, athletic director or a non-coaching faculty member authorized by the school to assist in spectator supervision and crowd control. It is recommended that each school provide at least three staff members for supervision at all tournament games.”

Geoff Kimmerly, communications director for the association, said the MHSAA has spoken with the student’s mother, school officials, and law enforcement about the incident.

He said hockey is one of two sports the association requires administrators be onsite for, the other being soccer. He said the Romeo AD was at the game, along with other security personnel. A safety team has been added to the parking lot since that game, he said.

“This was an unfortunate situation, but we do have a policy regarding hockey games safety,” Kimmerly said.

The policy calls for administrators to be present if the event is not taking place on school grounds. Because it involves skating rinks, hockey is an off-campus sport for all schools in Macomb County and most in the state other than a few private schools.

“Again, this is not something that happens regularly,” Kimmerly said.