Posted on 09/14/2005 4:48:16 PM PDT by Archidamus
5 teens sent to jail after fight erupts between local students and evacuees
Houston school officials will increase police presence at Jesse H. Jones High School and reconsider the number of Hurricane Katrina evacuees at the campus after five students were arrested and three were hospitalized because of an early morning fight Tuesday between Houston and New Orleans teenagers.
The fight, which involved 20 to 25 students, started about 8:15 a.m. — when a Jones student threw a soda can toward a group of New Orleans students, said HISD spokesman Terry Abbott. The incident is the first problem the district has had since enrolling 3,403 evacuated students. In the Greater Houston area, 15,045 displaced students are attending public schools.
A New Orleans student was transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital for facial injuries and two Houston students were taken to the hospital for facial and rib injuries. Two 15- and 16-year-old boys from New Orleans were arrested, as were three local 17- and 18-year-old boys.
All five were charged with disruption of school activities, a Class C misdemeanor, and will be removed from the campus, Abbott said.
"The quickest way to earn a ticket out of Jones High School and into detention is to hurt one of those students from New Orleans," Abbott said. "They've made it very clear to the Jones High School students that the children from New Orleans are our guests. We must treat them with all the dignity and respect we can."
New Orleans students are also being reminded to follow the rules, he said.
About 200 hurricane survivors are bused daily from the Reliant Park shelters to Jones. The school was selected to house evacuated students because of its low enrollment — about 1,100 students, 55 percent of whom are black, according to 2003-04 state figures.
HISD leaders may also discuss reducing the number of evacuated students at Jones, at 7414 St. Lo. The 200 students there are the most evacuees at any HISD high school. There are 103 at Scarborough High, which is taking students from the George R. Brown Convention Center. Sharpstown has 42, Kashmere has 25 and Wheatley has 33, Abbott said.
Jones students said Tuesday that they'd tried to welcome the evacuees to their school, but they changed their tune when New Orleans students started threatening to take over the campus and the city.
Houston students said the tension won't blow over until the evacuees are moved to another campus.
"It's not working," 15-year-old Tracy Williams, a Houston sophomore, said. "We were doing good before they came here — for real."
Teens said they're frustrated that the evacuees are getting extra assistance and special attention.
"Nobody's giving us $2,000. When it floods here, we don't go over there," said Pedro Umana, 14, a freshman from Houston. "They started it, but we finished it. And it's not over yet."
Senior Treyvaun Jones, 18, said, "I'm scared to go back to my own school, and I'm a grown man."
Robert Muhammad, southwest regional minister of the Nation of Islam, said leaders must address the concerns of Houston students. Muhammad, along with other members of the Ministerial Advisory Board to the mayor of Houston, will be on hand to counsel families at Jones today.
"We must address these legitimate complaints of our children. We can't sweep this under the rug," he said. "Those who have always been the least, the lost in this city would feel somewhat neglected."
Still, they must understand and have sympathy for the devastation that their neighbors have experienced, he said.
"The welcome mat in Houston is already being pulled back," he said. "My appeal to our city is that we be in this thing for the long run. It has long-run social, economic and political impact."
After school Tuesday, New Orleans evacuee Thea Daniel, 15, recounted how a Houston boy started the fight by hitting a New Orleans boy in the head with an open can of Sprite. Thea said school officials kept the evacuee students in the auditorium all day, even sending them back to the shelters a little early.
"They talked to us about discipline," Thea said.
Both Thea and her friend Jange Nero, 15, said they weren't surprised by the fight. Students have been talking back and forth since the New Orleans teens started attending classes there last week, they said.
Three HISD officers are already stationed at the school, but extra police, administrators and religious leaders are expected to be on hand today to help quell the tension, officials said.
HISD school board member Arthur Gaines said educators may have been so focused on finding schools for Louisiana students to attend that they didn't spend enough time making sure the children would get along.
"I don't think we should have just assumed these youngsters were going to melt in because they were black," Gaines said. "I think if the staff and teachers had worked with the students to say: 'Look, they've lost their homes. They've lost everything. ... I want you to put your arms around them.' "
While it's typical for teens to have skirmishes, Gaines said he expects Jones students to welcome New Orleans evacuees.
"These young people have had such a traumatic experience. This is like war. I guess you could say we've been in a war against nature," he said. "I don't think there's going to be continuous, ongoing friction."
After returning from their first day of class last week, displaced students living at Reliant Park reported feeling tension. Some Houston students had thrown gang signs and made disparaging remarks, said 17-year-old Raymond Warner, who is from New Orleans.
The evacuated students said last week that they would try to stay out of trouble.
"It's rough where we come from. There's a big chance something will happen," Raymond said Thursday. "Everybody was looking at us strange and everything because we're from New Orleans."
Reliant Park resident Pauline Johnson said Tuesday that she's worried about sending her two sons back to Jones.
"People are scared for their children. I'm scared that it's going to be a riot," she said. "We didn't ask to come here. I don't know why we're being treated like this."
Chronicle reporters Salatheia Bryant and Becky Bowman contributed to this report.
bet it's 55% black and 45% hispanic no way it white kid would every get off a bus alive at that school
"I didn't see a single white student in the tape."
Probably 55% black and 45% Mexican.
I only have one problem with this article. They only got quotes from the kids from NO. We didn't get to hear the other side of the story. Only the NO kids were quoted on what started it. Were the Houston kids even asked their version? I'm not saying either side is right or wrong, but when writing an article----two sides to every story.
My son is in the Catholic school system in Houston right now. Our small school of 250 has absorbed 80 new students from Louisiana. It is becoming a real strain on the system. You want to be charitable, but you also don't want your child's education to suffer. I'm undecided at the moment how I feel about all of this. I guess it's kind of a wait-and-see.
Well, if you get tired of it, I teach at a private christian school here in Houston,,,we have a good school and a good program. And we are picky about the kids we accept,,,keep us in mind.... :0)
Did you see in the Globe about the lady with six sons and a fiancee?
They weren't happy with the accommodations that a local church worked very hard to provide so now they are being put up in three FREE rooms at a hotel.
Unbelievable---talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
There is probably a lot more to the story than this. They should have kept them seperate from the general population for a little longer because they did just come through a flood and hurricane. The kids are bound to be emotionally screwed up for a while. This hurry up and get them in school stuff wasn't going to work. These kids are bitter, resentful, and scared. Wouldn't you be if you realized your parents risked your life because they were to lazy to get out of town?
Where are all the "churches"; where are all the "pastors" the "priests"? Are we leaving this to the Mullahs or are we a Nation "Free of religious Determinations" …not so according to the ACLU – we must be secularists, bar none?
Talk about a crock of steaming poop. He should have invited the chief of police on to explain the truth of what took place. It was widely reported that the "students" (and I use that term VERY loosely) from N.O. who had been transplanted into the area started a turf war and wanted to "take over the school turf," needless to say the home team students would not allow themselves to be pushed around and a fight for control took place. Funny, none of that was mentioned by "The Nation of Islam" spokesman. No, he went back to the old “black, poor, unfortunate, underprivileged, under funded education,” etc... jive talk rhetoric/pap they have been feeding them for decades.
Oh I have no doubt that "The Nation of Islam" will "unify" this rabble all under the banner of "Bush hates black people, he does not care, he blew up the levy" yadda, yadda, yadda.
I do not know who advised Mr. O’Reilly to have this man advise/apprise him of what happened and what needs to take place to rectify the situation but whomever it was, needs to be fired for lack of competence. If it was Mr. Bill himself, in an attempt to placate the "he is not fair and balanced" crowd then all he did was alienate his audience.
Americans have generously opened up our hearts and pocketbooks to help without any stipulation s to who is to receive the funds, black, white, yellow, purple it did not matter. Our church alone has raised and donated over $11,000 for relief efforts and frankly; many of us have had it; they have killed the goose that lays the golden eggs. Given the ongoing, never-ending statements, complaints, actions and attitudes of the overwhelming majority of these people, all I can say is they have received all they are going to from many of us and frankly, their ungrateful, unthankful, disgraceful race baiting, hateful rhetoric has set race relations back decades.
The good news is the Cath schools wont put up with much disruption whereas the pub schools are all about disruption.
Mears, do you have links handy to describe what's happening with the evacuees in Massachusetts? I moved from Massachusetts to Louisiana two years ago and I'm curious how things are playing out up there. Thank you!
Jesse Jones H.S. is 1% white. The rest are black, Hispanic or "other".
My computer skills are minimal but The Boston Globe (Boston.com) has some info.
Click on Today's paper and the City Region and Living Arts sections have 2 very good articles.
Many thanks. Here's the link to the article you mentioned earlier.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/09/15/after_their_ordeal_a_family_gets_a_taste_of_northern_hospitality/?page=1
That Sheraton they're staying in is actually a Tara; I had a friend from Winchester who used to work there and I've passed it many times while heading down I-90. Yeah, I'd say it's a step up from the church basement, all right...
Here's somebody who ended up in Dorchester:
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/home/articles/2005/09/15/establishing_a_home_again_from_scratch/
Interesting quote:
''Everyone is focused on the evacuees, but no one is focused on people like these," says Mayor Thomas M. Menino, whose office is coordinating services for, among other displaced people, those Gulf State residents trickling into Boston without the knowledge or assistance of state officials.
"We have no sense of the numbers," the mayor says. ''They're not attached to any organization, and they're trying to start a new life for themselves, and they don't know where to go for help. They have to think about jobs. Educating their children. Health insurance. They come here without any identification or ability to make a living."
I'm familiar with The Tara also(hideous looking IMHO)and also have passed it many time on the Mass Pike.
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