{"id":55917,"date":"2025-12-09T07:42:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/55917\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T07:42:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:42:20","slug":"allentown-middle-school-principal-placed-on-leave-following-incident-at-bucky-boyle-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/55917\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown middle school principal placed on leave following incident at Bucky Boyle Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 The principal of Harrison-Morton Middle School has been placed on paid administrative leave following an incident over the weekend, the Allentown School District announced Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Stephanie Williams, who was appointed principal in July 2025, was placed on leave effective Saturday, Sept. 13, according to an email sent to parents and the school community on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"781\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/harrison-morton-message-1024x781.png\" alt=\"harrison morton principal email snippet\" class=\"wp-image-5317\"  \/>snippet of an email sent by ASD on the evening of Sunday, September 14, 2025<\/p>\n<p>The district cited \u201can incident that occurred this weekend within the City of Allentown\u201d but provided no additional details, calling it \u201ca confidential personnel matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn accordance with Allentown School District policy and applicable law, we are unable to provide additional details at this time,\u201d the district wrote in the email.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/brian.pearsall.2025\/videos\/1787439588541268\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Video<\/a> circulating on social media appears to show Williams acting erratically at Bucky Boyle Park, running up to students, making faces and rolling around on the ground while appearing out of breath.<\/p>\n<p>In the video, students can be heard attempting to return what appear to be Williams\u2019 phone and glasses to her.<\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of the video, a student says, \u201cI think our principal is on drugs,\u201d as Williams approaches the camera, yelling, \u201cY\u2019all are brilliant,\u201d and laughing hysterically.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust please take your phone,\u201d one student says repeatedly in the video.<\/p>\n<p>Williams can be heard laughing and making disjointed statements, including \u201cThis is the craziest thing ever\u201d and \u201cThey\u2019re about to go viral. They don\u2019t even know they\u2019re about to go viral.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lehigh Daily could not immediately verify the origin of the video.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Arcelius Brickhouse will serve as acting principal until further notice, the district announced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are confident that he will provide strong leadership and support to students, staff, and families in the interim,\u201d district officials wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Williams could not be reached for comment Sunday evening, nor could district officials, as offices were closed.<\/p>\n<p>The district emphasized its commitment to \u201csupporting learning, teaching, and student success\u201d during the leadership transition and asked the school community for \u201cunderstanding, discretion, and cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams had served as principal for approximately two months before being placed on leave.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story.<\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"https:\/\/lehighdaily.com\/author\/jai-smith\/\" class=\"flex-shrink-0 group block leading-none\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764282993_735_newheadshot2-e1723998834556-150x150.webp.webp\" width=\"96\" height=\"96\"  alt=\"Jai Smith\" class=\"avatar avatar-96 wp-user-avatar wp-user-avatar-96 alignnone photo block rounded-full w-20 h-20 md:w-14 md:h-14 object-cover ring-2 ring-white dark:ring-[#2a2a2a] shadow-lg group-hover:ring-brand transition-all duration-200\"\/>                <\/p>\n<p>        <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text-sm text-text-secondary dark:text-gray-400 mt-1.5 leading-relaxed\">Jai Smith is a lifetime Lehigh Valley resident on a mission to empower local underserved communities and inform the public while providing journalists and storytellers a platform to develop the next generation of news media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 The principal of Harrison-Morton Middle School has been placed on paid administrative leave following an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-55917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}