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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: browardchad
You know, I'd *never* thought of that angle. Atta *did* visit Portland. Wonder how often he'd been there before...

Religion of pieces doncha know.

81 posted on 09/12/2002 10:18:10 AM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: CWRWinger
The only safe public school is closed public school.

I nominate this for the post of the day!!

82 posted on 09/12/2002 10:24:10 AM PDT by Freebird Forever
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To: ArcLight
But you don't know if this Somali kid is on welfare. So why bring it up?

On GP, you're right, but the word on the street here in Atlanta is that those that go immediately go on welfare.

83 posted on 09/12/2002 10:25:38 AM PDT by mhking
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To: FreedomFriend
Where are they living in Georgia?

There's a huge community in DeKalb, mostly around Memorial Drive and headed southward from there. And not just Somalis, there are a fair number from several different African nations in that part of Decatur and south DeKalb. Then of course, you have your requisite few over in "Chambodia" up on Buford Hwy...

84 posted on 09/12/2002 10:28:05 AM PDT by mhking
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To: Ohioan
Ping/Bump/Note to self to read this Myth link. Because the education nazis are even worse in Illinois than in Ohio, from what I can see.
85 posted on 09/12/2002 10:28:39 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
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To: FreedomFriend
I don't think it is race unless the Somali immigrants for sure would get along really well with black American kids. It's likely they'd fight with them the same as they fought the white kids. In my own kids school fights don't break down along racial lines (95% hispanic) but along language lines or American-hispanic kids who speak English against the foreigners. No one even bothers to fight with the few white kids.
86 posted on 09/12/2002 10:28:41 AM PDT by FITZ
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To: GOV'T MULE
Whatever problems it has now - come back in ten or fifteen years.

Lewiston will be full of trash, unemployment, condemned buildings, and crime just as every other city that has endured this type of demographic transformation.

87 posted on 09/12/2002 10:30:44 AM PDT by Catphish
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To: Skip Ripley; ZinGirl
They do the same if you just stand there and take it. Although our school does have a method for getting out of the punishment. All you have to do is know ahead of time that someone is going to beat you up and tell a teacher, principal or counselor on three seperate occasions before it happens and not do anything to defend yourself and it might be sufficient to get you off. If they bothered to document it instead of brushing you off.

sparky
88 posted on 09/12/2002 10:35:35 AM PDT by sparkydragon
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To: PLK; Ohioan; claptrap; FreedomFriend
May I alert you to another scary Somali issue?

Approximately 12,000 Somali Bantus are scheduled to be arriving in this country early next year. Everything I've read indicates that the Bantus, who were persecuted and raped in Somalia, do not get along with Somalis. Now they are supposed to get along together in American cities and towns?

www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/739828/posts
Dangerous "Somali" Refugee Situation?
89 posted on 09/12/2002 10:38:53 AM PDT by gulfwarvet
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To: taxcontrol
Really? Where? I would love to know about this. Please, see post 88. I was a prosecutor in Teen Court in high school. We were told that in no circumstance is self defense a defense for a lighter punishment. Teen Court was punishment phase only. To get in you had to plead no contest or guilty. We had cases where people had gotten pulled into a fight by their hair and, as prosecutors, we were expected to go for the max punishment.

sparky
90 posted on 09/12/2002 10:42:20 AM PDT by sparkydragon
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To: Black Agnes
Wow. Fascinating story. Looks like a lot of Somalis do move to Lewiston for the bennies. Still, this kid may have nothing to do with that. And even if he did, so what?
91 posted on 09/12/2002 10:43:30 AM PDT by ArcLight
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To: FITZ
I didn't say it was about race, but race, as most come from different countries, usually incorporates separate cultures, subcultures, conditions, values, beliefs, etc.

I also pointed out that the multiculturalist dogma is being promoted at the same time that huge numbers of third world immigrants and illegal aliens are being brought into America.

92 posted on 09/12/2002 10:46:12 AM PDT by FreedomFriend
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To: Freebird Forever
LOL!!

BTW, I would support a movement which had as its goal the total dismantling and destruction (not the physical buildings) of the public school system, never to return again. I don't want to even rebuild it.

Public schools and 'free' education are basically flawed.

93 posted on 09/12/2002 10:46:35 AM PDT by CWRWinger
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To: mhking
Wow. I did not know that. Wait a minute, I do remember hearing about Somalis living in Clarkston.
94 posted on 09/12/2002 10:47:06 AM PDT by FreedomFriend
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To: sparkydragon
My befuddled memory recalls a school district in Florida being taken to court by the parents - after the suspension of course.

I seem to remember that it was the parents arguement that BECAUSE the child was not permitted to argue self defense under the existing rules (I think the rules required a hearing for a suspension greater than 3 days), the child was not afforded due process.

I don't remember the outcome.
95 posted on 09/12/2002 10:59:24 AM PDT by taxcontrol
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To: FreedomFriend
I know you didn't say race at all -- I was agreeing that it's "multiculturalism" and lack of assimilation that's encouraged by the schools now.
96 posted on 09/12/2002 11:02:32 AM PDT by FITZ
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To: FITZ
I don't think it is race unless the Somali immigrants for sure would get along really well with black American kids. It's likely they'd fight with them the same as they fought the white kids. In my own kids school fights don't break down along racial lines (95% hispanic) but along language lines or American-hispanic kids who speak English against the foreigners. No one even bothers to fight with the few white kids.

That's certainly not the case in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. There was a story a few monts ago that was widely reported as "Asian kids victims of bias" which is a typical PC distortion of the real story.

SURVEY: RACISM RAMPANT AT B'KLYN'S LAFAYETTE HS By CARL CAMPANILE NY POST

------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------

April 17, 2002 -- EXCLUSIVE

Students and staff at Lafayette say the Brooklyn high school is a dangerous hotbed of racial bias.

An explosive survey obtained by The Post shows one student out of 10 reports suffering physical or verbal attacks by classmates who targeted them because of their race. And 36 percent believe racial tensions are high at the Bensonhurst school.

Teachers and other staff members agree.

Some 48.6 percent of them said that racial bias is a problem.

Schools Chancellor Harold Levy called for a probe at Lafayette in August after The Post exposed a series of allegedly racially motivated attacks - including the severe beating of a Pakistani student last year. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating alleged civil-rights violations at the school.

Lafayette subsequently created a special bias task force, whose members include Ronald Woo, the head of Levy's office of monitoring and school improvement, its new principal, Alan Siegel, as well as teachers, parents and community leaders.

The poll queried 1,545 students and 34 teachers and staffers.

Only 24.6 percent of the students thought bias was not a problem. About 40 percent were unsure.

"More students of every racial-ethnic group agreed with the statement [that bias exists at the school] than disagreed," an analysis of the results said.

There was a huge racial and ethnic disparity in the students who reported being a bias victim.

Half of the students who claimed to be bias victims identified themselves as white, 26.3 percent as Asian, 6.7 percent as black and 6.4 percent as Hispanic.

The percentage of white alleged victims was more than triple the 15.7 percent white representation among Lafayette's 2,400 students.

The percentage of Asian victims was more than double the 12.7 percent of Asians enrolled at the school.

Only 25 percent of the students who said they were bias victims notified authorities, the survey found.

"Students that did give a reason for not reporting indicated a fear of retribution by students, staff or school," the analysis said.

Levy spokeswoman Catie Marshall said the bias survey, conducted in the fall, is the first of its kind in a city high school. The survey was done in Chinese, Russian, Arabic and Spanish as well as English.

"This is a blueprint for healing a school community," Marshall said. "This survey is part of the solution to root out problems at Lafayette."

She said there have been no alleged bias incidents this year.

97 posted on 09/12/2002 11:04:04 AM PDT by Catphish
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To: ZinGirl
....I guess he is supposed to tow the liberal line and offer to sit down and talk about the situation over a nice cup o' tea.

Same policy when I was in school back in the olden days, everybody gets kicked out. Solution was to get his butt kicked and GTFOOD before the assistant principal shows up.

98 posted on 09/12/2002 11:05:30 AM PDT by Richard Kimball
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To: ZinGirl
That's the way it goes. I can remember back in middle school (late 80s to early 90s) and high school (early to mid 90s) that anyone who fought back would be suspended for roughly the same amount of time as the provocator.

Sometimes, I saw white students beaten up on by black students, unprovoked, and the white students happened to say a quick racial slur. Because of the slur, the white student received the same punishment as the black student, even though the black student started the bullying, and even though the white student didn't fight back or say anything until after the abuse.

Crazy, I tell you.

99 posted on 09/12/2002 11:05:30 AM PDT by FreedomFriend
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To: taxcontrol
Well, thanks for trying. This kind of thing really bothers me, but I haven't found anything where this particular zero tolerance policy has been contested in court.

sparky
100 posted on 09/12/2002 11:51:23 AM PDT by sparkydragon
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