Brawl Closes Rialto School
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Janet Wilson and Sandra Murillo, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 16
Officials at a new high school in Rialto on Wednesday closed the campus for the rest of the week in response to Tuesday’s lunchtime brawl between black and Latino students, the second such fight in less than a week.
The melee at Wilmer Amina Carter High School started after the groups of students lined up and faced each other, and one student allegedly threw a water bottle. Food and trash cans were then hurled, and fistfights broke out, said Marilyn Cardosi, a spokeswoman for the Rialto Unified School District.
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Security guards and a Rialto police officer assigned to the school responded immediately when the fight broke out, and more Rialto police were called in to assist, Cardosi said.
After a bell rang signaling the end of lunch, hundreds of students fled the courtyard, running for their classrooms, Cardosi said. They were held in those classrooms for the rest of the day in “lockdown” mode, rather than going from class to class as usual.
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(Posted on December 16, 2004)