Houston Students, Evacuees Fight; 5 Held

A bloody fight broke out at a high school in southeast Houston on Tuesday after a student tossed a soda can at a group of New Orleans evacuees arriving for classes, marking the first scrape between locals and Hurricane Katrina victims, officials said.

The fight between Houston and New Orleans students erupted about 8:15 a.m., just as the evacuees got off a bus at Jesse H. Jones Senior High School to attend their second week of school, said Terry Abbott, spokesman for the Houston Independent School District.

“Things have gone very well” between students and evacuees “up until this point,” Abbott said. “Why the student threw the soft drink can we don’t know. This is the first time we’ve had a problem.”

But some parents and students said trouble had been brewing since last week, when students argued over which group controlled the school.

As many as 25 students were involved in the brawl, Abbott said. Two evacuees from New Orleans, ages 15 and 16, and three Houston students -- two 17-year-olds and an 18-year-old -- were arrested on suspicion of disruption of school activity, a misdemeanor, Abbott said.

Ambulances took a 15-year-old girl and two boys, ages 16 and 17, to Hermann Hospital, where they were treated for bloody noses and minor rib injuries, officials said.

“We talked to both groups of students and made it clear that fighting is not tolerated,” Abbott said. “They’ve been told that New Orleans students are our guests. They need our help.”

Evacuees were also told that they were visitors and needed to follow school rules, he said.

The school in South Central Houston took in about 200 students, the largest number of evacuees at any Houston school. The school district, the seventh-largest in the U.S., enrolled about 3,400 evacuees.

School officials have added officers and administrators to patrol the school beginning today, Abbott said.