Principal Ran ‘Fight Club’ for Student Beatdowns

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]A once revolutionary school [music] for kids on the autism spectrum becomes a living hell when the principal acts as a ring leader of a makeshift student fight club, instructing kids to hit, kick, and choke a 13-year-old boy. This is Scandal, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Sierra Gillespie.

[00:00:25]Middle school is hard for any of us. To this day, I maintain that seventh grade was the worst year of my life. And I'm not being facitious about that. It was really, really rough. But the facts I'm about to tell you in this case will blow my middle school experience out of the water. And I want to stress these are facts, not allegations, because a former principal has now pleaded guilty to her charges, meaning she's fessed up about all of these accusations, and they are very disturbing. This principle of an institute that was meant to help children with autism learn instead made it a living hell. She instructed a group of 18 students to surround a 13-year-old boy and then literally beat him. Kick, hit, choke this poor boy and then berate him with threatening phrases. According to court docs, she even high-fived one of the students after they hit the boy.

[00:01:17]And if all of that wasn't disturbing enough, which by the way, it totally is, there were multiple other teachers, adult witnesses, who saw this and just did absolutely nothing. Today's scandal takes us to Jonesboro, Arkansas. It's a city in northeastern Arkansas, not too far from the Missouri border. And Jonesboro was home to a revolutionary school, the Delta Institute for Developing the Brain and the Engage program. Now, the woman behind this curriculum was 51-year-old Dr. Mary Tracy Morrison, who claimed to want to help children on the spectrum. Her studies focused on kids who have autism or ADD and how to make learning easier for them. In 2023, she was showcased in a features package for local TV station KIT8. She explained, "Every student is different, so she works to understand each person individually to create the best learning program for them." She said, quote, "So understanding what exactly creates their responses of fear, fight or freezing in these kiddos who are autistic." She went on to explain, quote, "So the front of the brain enables us to be polite social beings, to not be impulsive, to plan and keep our cool when we are upset, all the things that set us apart as professionals." So from afar, this sounds like a pretty good school. I mean, to have a professional with a doctorate paying attention to what makes each student tick, how to help them learn and grow, it's honestly the dream.

[00:02:37]But it turns out this dream was actually just a nightmare. And that brings us to the day of the incident, April 16th, 2025. According to court documents, on this day, Dr. Tracy Morrison encouraged other juvenile students to mentally and physically abuse the juvenile student.

[00:02:53]When the 13-year-old victim's mother reported all of these things to the authorities, they were able to get their hands on the security camera video from inside the school. And what they found on that video was absolutely horrific.

[00:03:04]In all, the incident lasted between 30 and 40 minutes. And as the video shows, Dr. Morrison instructed a group of 18 kids to form a circle around a 13-year-old boy who was forced to sit on the ground in the middle of them. Quote, Dr. Morrison can be heard telling other students to put their hands on the juvenile child located in the center of the circle and can be seen putting her hands on the child as well as hitting the child with an unknown object. Dr. Morrison verbally beraded the child the whole time as she watched many of the other students sitting around the circle punch, kick, and choke the victim sitting inside the circle. And I want to note Dr. Morrison, the principal of what's supposed to be this cuttingedge school, is actually encouraging this behavior. Investigators note in their report that after one child is seen hitting the 13-year-old victim, Dr. Morrison then gives the student a high five. She's basically saying, "Job well done." But there's even more. Quote, "Dr. Mr. Morrison can be heard asking the other juvenile students if they would like to say something that they don't like about the juvenile victim's appearance, or is there anything about the victim's looks that they don't like?

[00:04:06]Many students speak up, and as one student is remarking, Dr. Morrison can be seen hitting the victim with an unknown object and instructing the victim to look at the student that is talking. At one point, Dr. Morrison tells a student that they can hit the victim in the private area if they want to. According to the court docs, Dr. Morrison is seen choking the 13-year-old boy. multiple times and hitting him with an unknown object. And as I'm explaining this, you're probably sitting there thinking, "Wait, this happened at a school? Aren't there other faculty members? They must have seen this happening and they just didn't do anything." Yes, that is exactly what happened. According to Court Docs, another teacher, Katherine Lipscom, can be seen in the video. She's there sitting at her desk allegedly just ignoring this literal fight club. A teacher's aid, Michael Bean Jr., can also be seen in the video entering the classroom, reportedly witnessing the assault and doing nothing. And then there's a third teacher, Kristen Bell.

[00:05:00]She's also seen on camera walking through the classroom, allegedly going to the desk of Katherine Lipkcom and speaking. According to investigators, none of these three other faculty members did anything to stop the abuse, to intervene, or to report it. And I also want to note, our team has requested the video here. We're still waiting to hear back, but honestly, even if we do receive it, it may be too violent to play for you. I mean, the things that are described are truly terrifying, and it's horrific that a teenage boy, a child, had to endure it all. Now, when it was finally over, Dr. Morrison made the 13-year-old boy apologize to the students that physically and verbally assaulted him.

[00:05:37]After that, she told everyone, "We're never going to speak about this again."

[00:05:40]But thankfully, that's not what happened. The 13-year-old boy's mom went to the authorities the following day and made the report. And after that, the charges came down. In all, Morrison was charged with 11 counts of permitting child abuse, which was a class D felony, 18 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, a class A misdemeanor, and one count of failure to notify by mandated reporter in the first degree, which is also a class A misdemeanor. Morrison first appeared in court in April 2025, where bond was set at $250,000.

[00:06:10]Interestingly, early court docs noted that she was quote of good character and reputation and the nature and extent of family relationships was listed as good.

[00:06:20]But even still, she faced some pretty hefty charges. She reached a plea deal just recently and those charges were then bumped down. So, she ended up pleading guilty to one count of permitting child abuse, which is a felony, and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. All of those are misdemeanors. But get this, her sentence, not what you'd expect.

[00:06:39]Mary Tracy Morrison was sentenced to 30 days in jail only. She was also sentenced to a 12-month suspended sentence for each misdemeanor count, but again, she's only going to be in jail for literally 1 month. Now, after that, she'll face 120 days of house arrest and 5 years of probation. And there's also a stipulation that she can never again work with children in a professional capacity. The name of my show is Scandal, after all. But I truly never thought I was going to be talking about a student fight club with the principal at the helm. I need help wrapping my brain around all of this. So, I got to bring on today's guest. It's victim's rights attorney John Phillips. John, great to see you. Thank you for coming on. And okay, here's my question. As I'm going through reading the details of this, the court docs and the news articles and everything, I'm like, what is the motive here? I know we don't need a motive, but I want to make sense of it. I mean, what are your thoughts? I I I need I need help wrapping my brain around all this and I've done it for 25 years. I I I don't get it right. There's I mean I'm a father first of a 14, 11, and 8-year-old. So I I see this I I deal with kids um and and I work for kids with different IEPs and conditions.

[00:07:51]And even this week, I had um a a a an issue with a therapist that that was doing therapy in a in a in a alienation situation that was just >> in contempt for alienating her own kids.

[00:08:11]And so like you see all sorts of things, but the fight club aspect or or whatever you want to call it where you know kids are circling up bullying um as a as a psychological or classroom modality is just offensive to the conscious conscious.

[00:08:28]>> I mean truly I've never heard of anything like this ever before. And I cover some really terrible things. I know that you do too. I mean, we're talking about sexual abuse or physical violence. Um, you know, emotional or psychological abuse. All of those things I cover regularly on scale. I'm sure you've had to deal with, too. But I've never seen where a principal who, by the way, had her doctorate is kind of orchestrating what prosecutors called a makeshift fight club with these kids attacking another student. And I guess that kind of leads into my next question here. This woman seemingly had a lot of credentials. She had her doctorate.

[00:09:02]She's the principal of this school. I mean to me she's clearly throwing her entire career away. What are your thoughts about that?

[00:09:09]>> Yeah. So, you know, normally I just I read the summaries and and you know, look at the couple articles and then I I come on a show >> and this morning I have been down every rabbit hole regarding I'm going to go with Miss Morrison. I'm not going to give her the doctor credit anymore. um with Miss Morrison and her school and you know it it it it emphasizes a major point that parents need to research the heads of their school, research their teachers, particularly when you have choice, right? When you're when you're choosing a therapist, you're choosing a private school research. Um but it it it is odd because at her prior she had these gaps. she had these little employment, you know, periods and she was at one of the, you know, smaller schools, universities in in Arkansas and and had some issues there with with conflict and bullying. But, you know, that that's not going to be a warning sign to these kids, right? They're not going to know that. The parents aren't going to be able to see what's in somebody's, you know, employment file.

[00:10:19]Um but you know academically she certainly worked her way up the ranks. She put in the effort. Now I could you know from a civil context be like yeah but it was in it was in um you know brain injury and certain other types of brain development not like autism and and special needs.

[00:10:41]Um, so I do think she was unqualified, but regardless of her qualifications, this is a whole different, you know, apple and orange when it's it's this it's abuse. And and I'm trying to find a modality of how this would make sense in some sort of psychological treatment and it just it can't and it won't.

[00:11:03]>> No, it doesn't make any sense at all.

[00:11:06]And you just said something that's so scary because if you put her resume on a piece of paper and gave it to parents, they'd be like, "Wow, okay. Wow. You know, she's worked at universities.

[00:11:15]She's got her doctorate. She, you know, seemingly cares about kids. She's doing this school for children with autism or kids who are on the spectrum. Wow, this is a great gal." And then if you dig deeper, we're not going to have access to our text messages as parents. Why, you know, why would we have that? But if you take a closer look as we have now, okay, there were a couple of warning signs, but nothing would ever lead me to believe that she would create this fight club. And that leads into my next question is there is video of all of this. We've requested it. We don't have it yet, but I know that of course prosecutors saw it, investigators saw it. That to me, if they have this evidence where they can say in the court docs, we see Morrison, she is choking a kid, she's hitting the kid with the unknown object, she's doing all of these things, she's high-fiving a student after they, you know, attack this 13-year-old boy. I mean, that evidence to me sounds very damning. What do you think?

[00:12:03]>> It does. And and and it was so it was so over the top. I couldn't believe it.

[00:12:08]Right. I am reading news articles. I was like, "No, I got to I got to get to the primary source here." And one of the, you know, one of the articles had the the affidavit. So you you got to go straight to the the criminal um booking instruments and and see no this is exactly what is what is alleged and what to some extent she pled to. Um, so it it it's not like you have to to to say, "Okay, this is just some sensational story and and you know, prosecutors every once in a while they go off offkilter, but prosecutors are generally very, you know, close to the vest and don't don't use terms like fight club unless they can prove it."

[00:12:52]>> Um, and and and so, you know, in in preparing for the story, it was like, "No, this this can't be real." that you have a teacher saying, "Oh yeah, go ahead and kick little Johnny in the genitals and and hit him with whatever this this bat or whatever, you know, one would hope foam, but you know, who knows?" And and just over and over and over again and other adults in the room, you know, coming and going and either somewhat participating or acquiescing to it. It's just it's it's a it's a it's a little school of horrors.

[00:13:24]>> Oh my god, my mind was blown by all of this. First of all, I think you're right in saying often times we see headlines where we're like, "Oh, a fight club."

[00:13:32]And then you click on it and it's like, "Okay, they just wanted us to click on it, whatever." That's not the case here.

[00:13:37]It literally was a fight club situation.

[00:13:39]And you brought up something so important, the fact that this is a school. Of course, there's more than one faculty member or teacher adult present.

[00:13:46]That's what happened here. There was the principal who's really at the helm of it. But there were three other staff members, faculty members who saw this and didn't intervene, didn't report it, didn't do anything. And it said in the court documents, these are mandated reporters. Can you explain that to me? I mean, if they see something illegal, they have to report it, right?

[00:14:04]>> Correct. I think we've covered this in a recent case where we talked about it where there there is an obligation in some states to to report crimes.

[00:14:13]Generally, you know, as a citizen, if you see somebody run a red light or or steal a candy bar or even, you know, assault somebody, you don't have to affirmatively report. But when it involves children, there are obligations to report. And particularly on co-educators, right? If if you see abuse, you know, all nearly every state because of some of the horrible things that happens to children and their inability to protect themselves puts puts an obligation on people. Look, if you see something, say something. If if something dangerous or or horrible is having happening to a child. And so, you know, by them just turning their heads.

[00:14:56]They are committing a crime in this particular instance. and and it it's it's in Arkansas, but it you know that's a a pretty black letter um you know law now that that children are going to be protected and it's up to the adults to do so or you could get charged as well.

[00:15:14]>> I honestly I'm fully behind that. I think that this is, you know, a nonpartisan issue. We should be sending our kids to school if something happens.

[00:15:21]I want my teachers there to be reporting this immediately. It doesn't matter, you know, who it is or what it is. We want our kids to be safe wherever they go to school. I mean, I think that's really the basics here. So, to have three adults who see this happening and just don't do anything. That to me is so so wildly shocking. I mean, do you think their charges in all of this make sense?

[00:15:42]>> They do. And I just, you know, and and maybe we'll get to it. Maybe maybe I'm going to just go ahead and jump to it now.

[00:15:49]>> I I I don't I don't I don't think the punishment fit the crime. I I think it was I think it was far insufficient. Um and and it's it's disturbing. Now on the other side, you have all these children victims, many of them with different IEPs and sensitive issues, some full-on disabled intellectually and and psychologically, emotionally. And I I get why you don't want to put them through this. Um but but there's just this this disconnect in you know 30 plus home arrest um given the amount of victims here and the the the fact that that this is a story that's going to be picked up and reported. Yeah. It's on hundreds of news websites. We're blogging about it. We're we're talking about it right now.

[00:16:44]>> You don't want other people saying that's not enough. We we want a deterrence, right? We want six months.

[00:16:50]We want a year. We want we want abused kids to have justice. And I don't think it happened here. Still civil, but but the criminal leads the the justice train.

[00:17:00]>> I mean, I think you're so right about this because I was expecting honestly at least a year in prison for it to be 30 days. I was like, that's Are you joking?

[00:17:11]30 days when you orchestrated 18 kids abusing a 13-year-old kid? Like un absolutely unbelievable. And I guess you kind of touched on this, but I want to ask a little bit deeper. So, she ended up taking a plea deal, which to me makes sense because we have this evidence against her. Of course, the video and everything that checks out, you know, maybe not going to trial, but is another thought for that. The prosecutors didn't want to have to put these young children, victims, on the stand to testify, >> right? So, I so I I I actually did a memo to myself on this one.

[00:17:40]>> Oh, I love it.

[00:17:41]>> Uh, the resolution, this is from the prosecutor. The re the resolution ensures that the victims are not required to relive these events through the court process and secures conditions that protect the community going forward. Morrison will no longer be permitted to work with children, says chief deputy prosecuting attorney Jessica Thomas per law and crime. Very very good entity and very credible right there. Great.

[00:18:04]>> Um and but you know they talk about plural victims, right? And and I I get I get the need to not make the victims relive it. Um particularly in this instance, but they also need justice.

[00:18:22]And so h having represented, you know, hundreds [snorts] of of child victims in my career, I I imagine there's some parents still pretty upset, you know.

[00:18:32]Yes. Um, and I I I imagine more will be upset when that video is released, >> you know, and and there there's a there's a there's a education, you know, kind of watchdog website in Arkansas that's followed this and the the government money that that state department of education money that this that this private school received and and they're furious. um you know they're they're they're watching it closely because you know taxpayers funded this folks. Um this is not good. This this goes to show that we have a broken education system when you know we're trying to privatize school and bring in all these charter schools and yet they can just willy-nilly off of a self proclaimed affidavit qualify for hundreds of thousands of taxpayers money and here we are. Right? you you don't foresee this level of abuse but but there we have to protect our education first. It's why we're you know kind of falling behind in some standards compared to other countries because our our education department state department of educations are becoming you know just political tools and and you know money changing hands and profit centers and we got to get back to to helping kids. It's it's so sad because you think all of this money going to schools that sounds like a great thing.

[00:19:58]I want kids to be able to have all the resources that they need, especially if they have any sort of challenges or disabilities. Let's help these kids.

[00:20:06]Sure. But then when when all the money goes to a school like this where something can happen, absolutely wild and unbelievable. And you brought up a good point, too. If I'm a parent of one of these kids, I would say first of all, 30 days not enough. That's absolutely not enough. I'm glad she can never work with children again, but that's not enough. So, do you think there's any way that a civil action could be, you know, in the future on the horizon?

[00:20:30]>> I I would um I'm not licensed in Arkansas. I'm eight other states, you know, around it, but um I'd be happy to help if they called. It's you know, there there's the problem with it in this case is it's it doesn't have the sensational damages, right? Like there's certainly child trauma and when you have um you know victims that are ultra sensitive to abuse, particularly okaying and adults plural okaying bullying, there's secondary trauma that could go on for life. Um, but you know, when insurance money changes hands or or even if she has to pay out of her own pocket, it it you got to lead with an arrest in and in and case and conviction to really start justice. I I tell clients all the time, justice spelled one way. It's defined many different ways. And in and in cases where there's there's there's violence or harm um to children, you got to have criminal administrative and and civil and and we do the civil and and most civil attorneys are going to tell you, look, we really need to push the criminal here um for you to get the full package, right? And I I assume there's there's, you know, out of 18 20 parents, however many kids were in that room and and however many kids were in that school because it probably just wasn't that one room that one time.

[00:22:00]>> Yeah.

[00:22:01]>> Um, you know, they hopefully they will band together. Uh, you know, join join some text threads and some private Facebook groups and some DMs and and come together and and and just say this is this is not okay.

[00:22:15]>> Yeah. I mean, no parent wants to have to go through all of that and relive everything, but I do feel like they deserve justice in this. They were sending their kids to school wanting to better them, and now the kids might have lifelong trauma from that. And here's my last question for you, John. I want to talk about the 13-year-old who was part of this because there were a lot of kids who were victims in this because they were encouraged by someone they thought that they should follow the lead of.

[00:22:37]Hey, you know, punch this kid, choke this kid, all terrible things. But the 13-year-olds, the boy who was in the middle of this, you know, circle of hell, let me just say, you know, my my heart goes out to this boy. What do you think is ahead for him? I I I have a recently 13 now 14 year old >> and that is a chapter where they're finishing middle school. Puberty is happening regardless of uh a and my kid is is a is a little bit spoiled and has anything he wants and and you know doing doing objectively well. He he doesn't have the challenges and daytoday issues and and uphill battle that some of these kids have. And if I found out for a second that just the centilla of him sitting in the middle and being stigmatized by a group, >> terrible. I would be down at that school raising all hell.

[00:23:44]>> Mhm.

[00:23:45]>> And and this is worse. You know, this is the adult uh uh saying it's objectively okay and helping it and assisting it and and kids doing physical harm and talking about kicking each other in the nuts and like all these things that that that age group really doesn't need in their life as as being okay.

[00:24:07]um much less that that emotional and mental health side of things. So, so you know that poor kid um is a victim and and and you don't want the victim to be continuously victimized, right? You want him to move past it, but it his teacher look the school ended.

[00:24:31]the the teacher's gone.

[00:24:33]>> Mhm.

[00:24:34]>> That we had we had an issue with with my now third grader where his where his teacher died in first grade. They died.

[00:24:40]>> Oh no.

[00:24:41]>> And horrible. But that stuck with that class for years.

[00:24:45]>> Yeah.

[00:24:46]>> Because it's it's change. It's loss. And so the these kids want to believe that their parents and and the adults around them were normal and put them in a good situation. And now they've they've been betrayed by parents who didn't know, you know, they didn't know they they were paying, you know, there was a private school funded by the government, you know, probably some some subsidies that that paid for it from a parent standpoint um to try to open up more school choice options that just wasn't vetted by the adults in the Department of Education, right? And so um you know that we we owe an obligation to these kids that that is top down from the governor appointing the head of the department of education.

[00:25:33]That is a number one appointment across all 50 states that we have to get right and and it can't be political and it can't be partisan and it can't be based upon, you know, money and who where the money is going. It has to be based upon kids and kids education and the health and safety of kids. Period.

[00:25:52]>> I agree. That's the bottom line here is the kids deserve the best. They deserve to go to school, learn, feel safe, and you know, feel good about themselves.

[00:26:01]And I hope I never have to report on a case like this again because it's truly truly so disturbing to even have to talk about. John Phillips, thank you so much for coming on Scandal with us today and talking about this really disturbing case.

[00:26:13]>> My pleasure. Sorry about the soap box, but you know, being a dad first, lawyer second, it's this is this is it. You know, we can't we can't just say this was a oneoff. We we have to address it address it and address it thoroughly because justice wasn't done here for these kids.

[00:26:28]>> Yeah, we need to see some form of change because our kids deserve to be safe. I agree.

[00:26:34]As for the other faculty members involved with this so-called fight club, they were all charged with permitting child abuse and failure to notify as they were mandated reporters. We're waiting to hear the updates in their cases and we'll bring them to you as soon as the story unfolds. And that is where today's episode of Scandal leaves us for now. If you like what you saw and you want more or you want to connect with me on social media, you can find me on places like Instagram, Sierra Gillespie. Thanks for watching today's episode of Scandal. As always, I'm your host Sierra Gillespie and I'll see you next time.