Thread: Fremont HS Goes into Lockdown-Mode After Brawl

If it isn't prison fights there are racial fights at schools in California.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?secti ... id=4014673

Fremont HS Goes into Lockdown-Mode After Brawl
LOS ANGELES - It was a peaceful morning Wednesday at Fremont High School, as a heavy security presence helped maintain calm one day after a racially motivated brawl involving about 100 students forced the school into lockdown.

- "Today we're taking extra precautions," security guard Sophie Hale told ABC7. "We have our (metal detector) wands out, making sure the kids don't have no knives or guns. And everybody is coming in through the front entrance. No kids are coming in through the library gate or through the back swimming pool gate. Everybody is coming through the front."
Additional security and school police officers were at the South Los Angeles campus at 7676 S. San Pedro St. following Tuesday's brawl, said Sgt. Richard Taylor of the Los Angeles School Police Department.

About 100 black and Latino students were involved in the lunchtime fight, Taylor said. About 20 students were detained, but no charges have yet been filed.


The school was kept in lockdown until 3 p.m., when students were allowed to leave in small groups, Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Monica Carazo said. No one was injured.

"It was a fight between Hispanics and blacks," student Yvette Thomas told Channel 7. "I don't know, I don't know who set the riot off, but I know it was a fight and everybody just started (running) to the fight."

Seniors at the school Wednesday were taking the California High School Exit Exam.

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer visited the campus Tuesday and called the fight "unfortunate."

"Thankfully, school police and school staff were able to quell the lunchtime disturbance that involved about 20 students," Romer said. "Dozens more became bystanders. LAPD also dispatched units.

"Some of our schools are located in communities with tough socio-economic conditions, and problems in the neighborhoods spill over into the school," the superintendent said. "That is what happened today."

Romer said parents "have to teach our youth how to get along even under pressures that might make them want to lash out at each other. Campus security will be beefed up ... and we will be sending in teams to work with kids on human relations issues."

Sadly, this is just the beginning of 'turf wars'.