Fight At Local School Turns Into Chaos
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ABC7.com (Los Angeles), Nov. 20
LOS ANGELES—A fight between two Jordan High School students Friday led to a blacks-Latinos brawl that police said may have involved up to 1,000 people, including some gang members who came on campus for the fracas.
The scrap, which reportedly began with two girls fighting, possibly over something that happened yesterday, began during the second lunch period, officials said. Nobody was seriously hurt.
School police called for assistance from Los Angeles police, who donned helmets and quickly restored order on the 2,600-student campus in the 2400 block of East 103rd Street.
Capt. Sergio Diaz of the Los Angeles Police Department said several hundred people were involved, possibly as many as 1,000. A youth said it started in one place, then spread throughout the campus. When all was said and done four students had been arrested, one for allegedly kicking a school police lieutenant in the mouth, and three for disobeying orders to disperse, said Ellen Morgan of Los Angeles Unified. Four students also were treated for minor injuries, as were three school police officers, she said.
A fifth student, a 15-year-old girl, was taken to the hospital for treatment of an asthma attack.
Five girls also were detained for fighting at Locke High School, about two miles west of Jordan. It was unclear whether there was a connection.
Morgan said nearby Weigand Elementary School and Southwest Middle School also were locked down, as a precaution.
By the end of the day, officers in riot gear were escorting students in groups of 20 or so off the campus.
Worried parents—one woman sat crying in a chair and being consoled—waited anxiously to be united with their children.
One man said he expects the situation to be resolved off campus. “We might as well look for it to carry on in the streets because that is the next step,” he said.
Stephanie Roach just wanted to see her children.
“That’s all I want,” she kept repeating.
A father said, “You have a child who wants an education and other kids who don’t. That’s what’s frustrating.”
(Posted on November 22, 2004)