Irvine : Violence Sparks Heavier Scrutiny of School Areas

Several incidents of violence have prompted police to step up surveillance around the city’s high schools, officials said Thursday.

The most recent incident, a tire-iron assault Monday on a student from Irvine’s University High School, led to the arrest of two Huntington Beach juveniles, Police Detective Carl Kuchera said. A. Stanley Corey, superintendent of the Irvine Unified School District, said the student, who is 16 years old, was assaulted on Campus Drive near UC Irvine.

“Apparently the student was walking home with another student, and two cars came by and there was some yelling back and forth,” said Kuchera of the Police Department’s Juvenile Investigations Division. “The kids from the cars got out and a fight started.”

The University High student was treated and released at a local hospital after the assault, Kuchera said.

“I’ve been here 11 years, and it seems like we’ve had more incidents like this in the past two or three months than I can ever remember,” Kuchera said. “Toward the end of January, there was a fight, also at University High, that involved some students from Fountain Valley.

“We’re not putting on added manpower, but our normal beats are now checking the school parking lots very carefully around lunchtime and when school gets out every afternoon to try to cut down these incidents.”