Both incidents involved students whose families live in Upper Dublin and students who live at St. Mary's Villa.
"St. Mary's provides residential care for children who've been removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect or other special circumstances," said Diana Fryer, the Executive Director.
Most of the St. Mary's children come from Philadelphia. While a few have attended Upper Dublin schools over the years, the numbers increased in March.
Changes in state funding led to fewer students being educated on St. Mary's campus. In addition, the time allowed for transition into the public schools was cut - from up to three months down to 48 hours.
On Monday, the district started a new transition program with a special homeroom, to support the St. Mary's students.
Superintendent Michael Pladus says he doesn't know exactly what prompted the fights, but thinks the jarring transition into a suburban middle school at mid-year may have played a role.
"The students who come to us from St. Mary's have had very difficult experiences or obviously, they wouldn't be taken out of the home," said Pladus.
The superintendent wouldn't share specifics on how the students involved in the fights were disciplined, but according to the Sandy Run Middle School student handbook, fighting is punishable by suspension for 1-5 days, or expulsion.
At a public meeting this week, some parents expressed concern over the St. Mary's children continuing to attend Sandy Run, but not everyone agrees.
"I think our school district's doing a good job to try to keep all the other kids safe. I don't really think that it's that big of an issue," said Laura Clouse.
"It might be some issue to other parents, but I used to live in the city. Once I came out here, it's a diverse area, so why not get along," said Anthony Fooks.
With the new transition program in place, the district hopes the fights will cease.
