Two students arrested in brawl injuring four
By Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer 11/20/08
The brawl broke out around 12:45 p.m., around the same time that someone deliberately set a blaze in the second-floor hallway in the new building, authorities said.
Five students between the ages of 16 and 19 were taken to an area hospital, including one who was suffering from an asthma attack, said D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman Alan Etter. The other four teenagers suffered injuries consistent with a knife and stab wound, with cuts and abrasions. None of the injuries were life threatening, he said.
Police were investigating the incidents and trying to determine who set fire to a pile of papers in the middle of the hallway.
“Clearly someone set it,” Etter said.
The violence apparently started between two groups of neighborhood street crews, police said.
Amid the chaos and the blare of the fire alarm, officials evacuated the school and sent the students to the football field where more melees broke out.
The school remained locked down as nearly 30 police and fire officials responded to the campus.
Two of the injured youths were arrested and police were weighing assault charges, a police department spokeswoman said.
Last week, District school officials fired a principal at nearby Hart Middle School after two months of violence, including assaults on three teachers. A 14-year-old at that school was charged with carrying a shotgun, and other students ran down the hallways discharging fire extinguishers.
A spokesperson for the school system was unable to provide any details.
1 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Nov 20, 2008
Why??: "Could this be because of the recent closings of several schools, overcrowding in the remaining school's, and lack of teachers? Why is everyone acting like this new DCPS administration is made of teflon? I feel sorry for the children of DC, as they are made to be lab rats for two idiots (Rhee, Fenty) experimenting with their education for personal gain. Bravo."