2 Teens Injured by Gunfire at Jordan High

Two teen-agers were shot in front of Jordan High School in Watts on Thursday during a confrontation that may have stemmed from a weekend dispute between rival gangs, police and school officials said.

One of the youths, an 18-year-old Jordan High 11th-grader, suffered a wound to the right leg. The other, a 17-year-old student at a continuation school for troubled youths, was shot in the left forearm.

The victims, whose names were withheld, were both in stable condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

“Basically, it was just two groups involved in a dispute,” Los Angeles Police Lt. David A. Hepburn said. “Some shots were fired, some people were hit.”

Hepburn said three juveniles identified as Jordan High students are in custody but have not been booked. He said he did not know if the victims or the arrested youths belong to gangs.

“We did recover a gun from one of (the teens in custody),” Hepburn said.

Hepburn said police were unclear about how the incident started, but a school administrator said groups of youths had spilled into the street in front of the building shortly after 2 p.m. as classes ended early because of parent-teacher conferences.

“Two gangs got together,” Assistant Principal Joseph P. Santana said. “I guess something was brewing over the weekend, and when school let out, some of the kids walked out into the street, and one of our students and a rival gang member were shot.”

Santana said the incident marked the first time in his four-year tenure that a student was shot at the school.

“This is tragic,” the administrator said. “And it happened to kids who were really turning around. I know both of them.”

Santana said the 11th-grader had stayed out of trouble “for at least a year and a half.”

Teachers, who said the 6 p.m. conferences would be held despite the incident, expressed concern that the incident would further sully Jordan’s reputation. Parents have criticized the school for what they describe as “terrorist” conditions resulting from gang activity and past on-campus crimes that include rape and assaults with deadly weapons.

“There are too many good kids here, and I’d hate to see them affected by the bad,” said Susan Daniels, who chairs the school’s math department. “I hope this one incident doesn’t give us the bad publicity we’ve had so many times.”

Shakila Hasan, 52, a biology instructor, said she would discuss the incident with her students.

“I’m going to tell them to be careful,” Hasan said. “What else can I say? I’m concerned for them. Every evening when you turn on the news you always hear about something happening in South-Central Los Angeles.

“This time it’s a little too close.”