The school day at Jefferson High School passed without incident Tuesday. But it was far from typical.
After a surprise visit from Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Roy Romer, Mayor James K. Hahn showed up. At one point, school Police Chief Alan Kerstein, who was also there, said 29 school police officers patrolled the South Los Angeles campus and 12 more roamed nearby. Attendance at the 2,400-student school was down by almost half.
Larry "The Sage from South Central" Elder had a talk show on KABC790 last night, and had a college student that want to Santa Monica High interview some students that were on the SAMOHI campus when the fights broke out. She stated that there have been one or so fights a month as long as she could remember, with the participants never punished, because it was politically incorrect to do so.
Also, the High School was holding a middle school orchestra competition that day, so all these younger students got caught in the middle of all the fighting.
She said that it was blacks versus hispanics, and that it escalated as students started calling their friends on cell phones, and outsiders started showing up to the campus.
Also stated students kept fighting until officers actually handcuffed one of the worst offenders. Another student said the school officers werent interfering, and teachers were trying to break up the fights, possibly due to officers worrying about getting sued over use-of-force.
A very sad state of affairs if you ask me.