Wolfpac made up of ex-students, officials say

By PAT NEWMAN and MONROE ROARK
Staff Writers

The code of conduct for Fayette County students states that gang-related activity and bullying will not be tolerated. However, the teenage code of silence often supersedes the school rules.

A 16-year-old Sandy Creek High School student was severely beaten Aug. 1 by a band of young men, two of whom have been charged by the Fayette County Sheriff's Department with simple battery. Several of the perpetrators were identified by the victim as members of the Wolfpac, a so-called group of former Sandy Creek students.

“The students in that group are out and gone,” said Dr. Charles Warr, Sandy Creek High School principal. ”It was a very unfortunate situation for this young man,” he added, referring to the beating of one of his students.

According to Jeri Walsh, her son and her home have been the target of threats and vandalism by the Wolfpac for some time. “How they manage to avoid being caught is beyond my comprehension,” Walsh wrote in a letter to the editor last week. “These teens tormented my child the entire school year, forcing him to miss many days of school. We wondered why he feared going to school; he was too embarrassed to tell us until this beating occurred...” Walsh wrote.

Her son spent six hours in the hospital after the attack.

She said medical personnel kept a careful watch on the liver and spleen, fearful of a possible rupture, due to an enlargement triggered by a recent case of mononucleosis. “He was black and blue from head to toe and sustained an eye socket fracture,” Walsh explained.

“I could have lost my child... this is a very emotional thing for me,” Walsh said.

According to school officials, there is no gang activity in the high schools that they are aware of. Both Warr and Starr's Mill High School Principal Sam Sweat denied seeing any signs of in-school gang-related activities.

Warr acknowledged that gangs can spring up, especially with so many people moving into the county from other parts of the country.

“We have a strong policy prohibiting any kind of gang activity; we will not allow it,” said Wayne Robinson, director of secondary schools for the system. He cited the updated student discipline code which defines a gang or gang member as “a person who is part of an association of three or more people, associated for common purpose, which engages individually or collectively, in illegal behavior. Gang related activities includes, but is not limited to, communication of gang affiliation through hand sign flashing, wearing of clothing articles in a certain way or color scheme, jewelry, tattoos, gang signs, symbols or graffiti on personal items, vandalism of public or private property and acts of intimidation, threats, fighting or other forms of violence.”

The penalties call for detention, notification and/or suspension from one to 10 days with a possible recommendation for a hearing before a disciplinary tribunal which could result in long term suspension to expulsion.

The Fayette County Sheriff's Department reported that the beating incident took place at 196 Thompson Rd., near the Fulton County line. Arraigned in connection with the incident were Joshua Reid Harrison, 17, and Dustin Peppers, 18.

Harrison and Peppers were the only two people identified by the victim, according to investigators. No warrants were issued for anyone else due to the lack of positive identification.

The Wolfpac appeared on a website created by another youth group called the Rollin' Cracka Five earlier this year. The site was shut down by the sheriff's department and the group's leader was charged with soliciting gang activity. The case has yet to be heard in court.

The Wolfpac was investigated at that time and not considered to be a street gang, according to Maj. Bruce Jordan, the sheriff's criminal investigative head, because the group did not meet the two most important criteria of a gang: being formed for the purpose of committing crimes, and using the commission of crimes by individuals as a measuring stick for promotion within the group.

“It was a social group,” said Jordan. “We have to be very careful who we classify as a gang,” he said.

The main reason for the fight, investigators believe, is that members of the Wolfpac and the Rollin' Crackas were in the same location and simply do not like each other, especially after the Cracka's statements on the Internet.