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Fights Spoil New Campus’ Hopes

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Times Staff Writer

When they enrolled in the new South L.A. Area High School No. 1 this fall, many students thought they were escaping the violence that spoiled their spring semester at nearby Jefferson High. But fighting last week that resulted in 34 student arrests and 10 hospitalizations quickly brought back those bitter memories.

Some parents and students worried that the same tension that caused three violent riots at Jefferson last year, involving hundreds of black and Latino students, has spilled over to the new campus.

“It’s a beautiful school,” said Lashon Lockhart, who picked up her two daughters during the middle of classes Friday after hearing rumors of more conflicts. “I’m scared to send them back. I don’t know what else to do. I can’t just keep them home with no education.”

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About half a dozen police officers monitored the campus after two days of fights on campus last week. Police arrested 16 students Wednesday after a fight between two girls escalated into a brawl. Ten were hospitalized after police used pepper spray on the crowd.

On Thursday, 18 more students were arrested after a dispute between two groups erupted into more fighting. Police also recovered a knife from a student.

The gleaming new campus on the site of the old Santee Dairy, which is not yet named, opened this year in South Los Angeles to relieve crowding, mostly at Jefferson. The school is struggling through “growing pains,” said co-principal Vince Carbino, as it tries to accommodate 2,900 students from various neighborhoods and backgrounds.

“This is a multitrack, year-round high school on a new campus,” Carbino said. “We’re still working out the bugs.”

By week’s end, security remained tight and doors stayed locked after administrators learned that students were plotting another lunchtime disturbance via cellphone text messages. The mood on campus had calmed slightly, with no reports of major incidents, but staff stayed on alert.

Meanwhile, parents picked up their children, fearing more violence, while others came to pick up transcripts to transfer students out of the new school.

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Four students remained in custody Friday, according to Los Angeles Unified School District police. School officials were considering suspending those who were arrested, or recommending them for expulsion.

About 100 parents showed up for a meeting after the second fight to discuss campus safety concerns.

Some students and parents have criticized officers’ use of pepper spray and clubs. But school district Police Chief Lawrence Manion said his officers used necessary “minor force” to gain control during the fighting.

District officials said the campus brawls were not racially motivated. Some students disagreed.

Lacresha Riggs, 16, witnessed the first fight Wednesday. She said one of the girls involved was her friend. As the drama unfolded, she said, students began taking sides along racial lines.

The school is 93% Latino and 7% black, district officials said.

Lacresha attended Jefferson High last year and enrolled at the new campus expecting to feel safer. She loved its modern design, which include a rooftop recreation area, new computer labs and classrooms with garage-style doors that open to the big bright quad.

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Lacresha and her younger sister were excited about taking dance classes on campus, and they liked the block schedule, in which students take four longer classes a day instead of the traditional six or seven.

But last week, they had to dodge baton-wielding officers, pepper spray and punches from fellow students.

“Police weren’t making it better,” Lacresha said. “They were grabbing kids, spraying kids and hitting them with sticks.... It was out of control.”

Lacresha said she and her sister ran toward an empty stairwell to avoid getting hurt.

The next day, Lacresha and her sister found themselves running again, after they noticed two groups of boys rushing toward each other.

“They all started hitting each other,” Lacresha said.

The two girls left class Friday afternoon after hearing rumors of more possible fights after school.

During lunch, two officers monitored the quad from a balcony as staff members with walkie-talkies guided groups of students to pick up their lunches and return to classrooms to eat. Four more officers guarded the school in front of a tall gate that blocked off the quad with a sign that read “Safe School Zone.”

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Principal Carbino distributed his cellphone number to parents and students, urging them to warn him if they heard rumors of more incidents. Carbino said he was also monitoring the popular website myspace.com for chatter about more problems.

He received a few calls Friday morning from students offering tips about possible fights. Later that morning, some showed him text messages from their peers planning another lunchtime disturbance. Those tips, he said, helped prevent trouble.

Such precautions do not convince some parents that the administration is doing enough to keep their children safe.

Virginia Avila came to campus to get her son out.

“This is a new school,” she said, “and I thought it would be better for him.”

She decided it is not. Avila said she would move her family to the Inland Empire because she was fed up with the violence on South Los Angeles streets and campuses.

Another mother, Maria Guzman, picked up her two sons and said that after hearing their stories of running from pepper spray she was planning to transfer them back to Jefferson. She is forgiving Jefferson for its violence last year.

“There are more problems over here,” she said, “than over there.”

Her son, Fernando Lopez, 15, said he hadn’t expected the same unrest this year.

“I’m surprised it happened again, at a new school,” he said. “I thought it would be different, but it’s pretty much the same.”

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