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Huge Brawls between Somali students and Lewiston, Maine high schoolers
Lewiston Sun Journal ^ | September 12, 2002 | Lindsay Tice

Posted on 09/12/2002 8:28:18 AM PDT by gulfwarvet

School officials fielded anxious phone calls from parents Wednesday, one day after a fight between a Somali student and another teenager broke out at Lewiston High School and turned into an afternoon melee off school grounds.

“What we’re trying to do now is assure parents that we have a very safe school,” said Principal Patrick O’Neill.

Record-setting heat and community friction have caused tensions to rise recently in the 1,250-student high school, officials acknowledged. But, said Superintendent Leon Levesque, “The school has been very calm.”

On Wednesday, disruptions to the school came not from fights but from rampant rumors about weapons and further fights following Tuesday’s brawl near Marcotte Park, in which police arrested two men, neither of whom was a Lewiston High School student.

“It’s completely consumed our day,” said Levesque.

Lewiston police patrolled the area around the high school after school let out Wednesday afternoon. There were no fights.

“Everything was very peaceful and smooth,” said the school system’s Somali community liaison, Mohammed Abdi. He expected similar patrols to continue through the week.

As scheduled, Lewiston High School students will spend this week talking about Sept. 11, its aftermath and effect on Americans’ attitudes toward Muslims and immigrants. No special assemblies or events were planned to address Tuesday’s incident.

According to O’Neill, the confrontation started when a teenager who did not attend Lewiston High School followed a Somali student into the school’s lobby and taunted him. O’Neill said he interceded as the argument became physical and the Somali boy tried to restrain the other teen.

As is school policy, O’Neill suspended the Somali student for three days for his part in the fight. He told the other teenager to leave school property or he would be arrested.

According to police, the high school fight generated a large brawl at 2 p.m. near Marcotte Park. That one involved more than four dozen people.

Levesque said the high school has worked hard to combat rumors and to ease racial tensions there since Somali immigrants began moving into the city a year-and-a-half ago. But friction within the community has begun to cause renewed tension within the school.

While Levesque couldn’t predict whether such friction would lead to more battles at or around Lewiston High School, he hoped to see community leaders identify the issues causing the most contention and come up with resolutions soon.

“I think probably we need to look at this from a community perspective,” he said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: lewiston; maine; somali
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To: Black Agnes
I read the same thing. I just want to know WHY thousands of Somali Muslims (unemployed for the most part, collecting 'benefits') have invaded one small town in Maine?

Immigrants usually stick together. 100 years ago, you had towns comprised solely of Lithuanians, Germans, Poles, Italians, etc. The residents of Middletown, CT, or 85% of them, are descended from Italian immigrants, all of whom came from one village in Sicily. This is really nothing new. I can't comment on the specifics of the Lewiston-Auburn situation, since I really don't know anything about what's going on.

41 posted on 09/12/2002 9:33:39 AM PDT by andy_card
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To: Ohioan
There is no evidence that mixing the races in the schools confers a positive benefit.

So you're advocating resegregation?

42 posted on 09/12/2002 9:36:08 AM PDT by andy_card
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To: Ohioan
There is no evidence that mixing the races in the schools confers a positive benefit. There is serious evidence that it undermines the positive motivators in each race involved.

Wonder what I mean when I complain about Freeper racism?

Well, here ya go...

43 posted on 09/12/2002 9:38:17 AM PDT by ArcLight
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To: andy_card
100 years ago, you had towns comprised solely of Lithuanians, Germans, Poles, Italians, etc.

One hundred years ago, we weren't paying for the rent and food and medical care and education of Lithuanians, Germans, Poles, Italians, etc. That's the difference. If they pulled their own weight, nobody would give a damn where they moved.

Check out my link above. They picked Lewiston, Maine because that's where they could get the most "free stuff".

44 posted on 09/12/2002 9:38:47 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: mhking
Do you know anything about #8?
45 posted on 09/12/2002 9:40:59 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
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To: Skip Ripley
Yep, a friend of mine's son was jumped by a kid while at school. He fought the kid off and then took him down. His punishment was identical to the kid who attacked him! I don't think he even threw a punch and they still suspended him!

School discipline was a topic on a thread a few days ago and the issue of "punish everyone equally" came up. An astute Freeper pointed out how the left has done essentially the same to Israel in the world community. Homicide bombers kill Jews - Israel defends itself - world condemns Israel equally with Palestinian whackos. It's a leftist thing, I don't understand it either.

46 posted on 09/12/2002 9:42:15 AM PDT by PLK
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To: mhking
Oops - we appear to some of the answer in #'s 28-30. Any idea what station was really doing this, as opposed to Neal reporting it?
47 posted on 09/12/2002 9:44:23 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
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To: FreedomPoster
WRFG (89.3/Radio Free Georgia) is the local Pacifica affiliate. They've got a number of hard left-wing programs on, and they've had several folks on in the past encouraging Somalis and other native Africans to move to Lewiston, presumably due to the lax welfare rules and guidelines there.

WRFG's listenership for any program outside of their morning drive blues show (and even those ratings are sinking below their already dismal levels) could probably fit inside a broom closet. It's not enough of an issue to make hay on...

48 posted on 09/12/2002 9:45:21 AM PDT by mhking
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To: rdb3; Khepera; elwoodp; MAKnight; condolinda; mafree; Trueblackman; FRlurker; Teacher317; ...
Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

49 posted on 09/12/2002 9:46:09 AM PDT by mhking
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To: mhking
OOO, I listen to WBAI, the NYC affiliate. I call it '1-800-commies', 'all commies, all the time!'.
50 posted on 09/12/2002 9:46:39 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: gulfwarvet
Levesque said the high school has worked hard to combat rumors and to ease racial tensions there since Somali immigrants began moving into the city a year-and-a-half ago

I would assert that careful investigation would reveal that this is not so much a "racial" problem as a problem related to the lack of assimilation by Muslims into American culture. They do not like us and are here only to reap the benefits of a society that they hate. Until I hear otherwise, I refuse to believe that modern American teens are engaging in racial hatred, it's just very unlikely, especially in Maine for cryin' out loud. The whole story is simply not being reported for fear of backlash against the Muslims, which is myth to start with.

51 posted on 09/12/2002 9:47:38 AM PDT by PLK
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To: FreedomPoster
Oops - we appear to some of the answer in #'s 28-30. Any idea what station was really doing this, as opposed to Neal reporting it?

Boortz mentioned it several months ago - it truly didn't even rate a blip locally. The group doing the advertising would have gotten better listenership if they had announced it on a bus during rush hour. The idea is actually being passed around word-of-mouth, primarily in their churches and communities directly.

52 posted on 09/12/2002 9:48:05 AM PDT by mhking
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To: Atlantian
"Some good-hearted people in Lewiston were even giving these people "care packages" thinking they had just come from Somolia"

BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! SAPS!

53 posted on 09/12/2002 9:49:53 AM PDT by monday
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To: mhking
By the by, what has any of this got to do with welfare?
54 posted on 09/12/2002 9:50:09 AM PDT by ArcLight
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To: hellinahandcart
Hey you, ever listen to WBAI? The Commie Station?
55 posted on 09/12/2002 9:50:33 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: gulfwarvet
Completely consumed their day? You mean they werent able to hype the virtues of gayness? They werent able to re-write history, condemn whitey ,and promote the socialist agenda?
Oh well there is always Friday! Has anyone got any idea why a Somali is in Maine, and if hes moved there why is he still
calling himself a "Somali" is he sad that he left his great
and awesome Somali culture behind? If hes moved here then hes
just another American right?
56 posted on 09/12/2002 9:51:01 AM PDT by claptrap
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To: Black Agnes
OOO, I listen to WBAI, the NYC affiliate. I call it '1-800-commies', 'all commies, all the time!'.

Pretty dismal at best. Overall (outside of the blues show), the station sounds like crap. The blues show actually plays a pretty good selection of more obscure and hard-to-find selections. I'm guessing the host of that show is more of a conniseuer, as opposed to the Socialists who inhabit the rest of the programming day...

57 posted on 09/12/2002 9:51:53 AM PDT by mhking
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To: mhking
The idea is actually being passed around word-of-mouth, primarily in their churches and communities directly.

Announcements in churches would tend not to have much influence, given that the Somali population is overwhelmingly Muslim.

58 posted on 09/12/2002 9:52:08 AM PDT by andy_card
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To: ArcLight
Many foriegners live for Welfare. Every international child is on the free lunch program here, even the children of the Saudis and Kuwaitis. Which is odd considering they sometimes serve pork in the cafeteria. But it's free!
59 posted on 09/12/2002 9:52:51 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: ArcLight
By the by, what has any of this got to do with welfare?

Supposedly, the rules governing welfare in Lewiston are among the most loosely regulated (i.e., liberal) in the nation. Someone among the local African immigrant population here in Atlanta got wind of this and began spreading the word.

60 posted on 09/12/2002 9:53:21 AM PDT by mhking
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